Maldives Blog

Stop Partying and Start Moving

2007-01-18T00:36:00.000+05:30

I apologize for the long hiatus. I have been pretty busy with work and everything else. Two important things happened during my absence from the blog.
1) The failed mass gathering organized by MDP for the 10th of November 2006
2) The expulsion of Mavota Shareef (MP Addu) from MDP and the expected departure of some high ranking MDP personals to the new party to be formed by the former MDP president Ibra.

The gathering organized by the MDP was doomed from the start. I fail to understand how MDP could have envisioned a mass gathering to the capital when most of the islanders live below $1 a day. Where would they get the money to travel, where are they going to stay, what are they going to do once they arrive. Besides, in Maldives most of the people who are rich enough to own a boat (dhoni) are connected to the Regime (how else could they have gotten rich). It was simply a matter of cutting off the transportation by the government. A simple task. A few brave people tried only to be made an example to the rest of the country of what would befall to anyone who tried to join this demonstration. Maldives in not Venezuela or Ukraine or even Nepal. Its MALDIVES something most people in MDP seem to constantly forget.

This event was further marred with the division within MDP, specially by personals like mavota shareef, modee, shihaab and various other members that I cant remember off hand. To further this rift these individuals even went as far as going public with their opposition to such a demonstration. This was no way to strengthen the trust we have on this party. This split was definitely taken advantage by the ruling DRP party by giving them airtime.

I think it was very wise of MDP to call off the gathering. It would have turned out to be like the other failed gathering's of MDP where the turnout is always way lower than expected. Which ultimately strengthens the position of DRP.

However, paradoxically, I think the best thing that happened to MDP is actually this rift and the subsequent departure of these individuals from the party (some of these departures have not been officially made public). First with Ibra, Mavota, Modee, and hopefully Shihaab. These are people who are trying to transform a popular movement to a "real political party". In my view MDP should always remain as a movement. MDP has always garnered much of their support from the youth of this country and the reason being that we saw MDP as a popular MOVEMENT. If MDP was to play the political party game they are doomed to fail. How can they play party politics when DRP owns the majority of the parliament. When DRP owns all the business tycoons of this nation. When DRP owns the budget of this country. All MDP has is the grassroots’ support... The youth who would rule this country one day.

Iliyaas (first lady's brother)- is too old for the Maldivian people on top of his corruption scandals. Yameen (presidents half brother)- has no support from the public, old and young included. He just carries a handful of his business associates. Soon getting too old for the youths liking. He seems to be getting more and more impatient as he knows time is running out for him. Buruma Gasim (Iliyas previous servant boy and today, richest man in Maldives)- Uneducated for our liking, a traitor, and unfairly monopolized Maldives business. The master of killing the small business sector of this nation. The New Maldives boys- they are young and well educated. But I cant help but laugh at these bunch of kids who think the youth of this nation is behind them . We are not blind to see how you are servants of a master. These kids claim to bring change from the inside. The trouble being inside is, once you are inside one fails to see the outside.

Ultimately I think the rift and the failed gathering will strengthen MDP in the long run. This has weeded individuals who are working for their own personal gain. I think with these peoples departure MDP will attract more and more educated youths. This is what MDP needs. Not some sitting ducks on the parliament. Who cares if MDP has parliament members in the party. I certainly do not, because these Parliament members can change nothing- Absolutely nothing. They can argue and boom the halls of the parliament with rhetoric but nothing will ultimately change. A good example is the recent debate on the budget. The so called MPs of MDP failed. Many eventually voted for this fat budget.

Lets look at the budget. The budget was enormous. Now one should ask who is paying for this. Certainly not the resort owners. Certainly not the big businesses. Because the tax on their business has not increased. So ultimately it is the people who will foot the bill. A clever ploy by Burumaa Gasim (the richest man and the finance minister of Maldives) to kill off the medium business. This increase in the budget will slowly increase various government revenue generating mechanisms, eventually depleting the small business. Leaving the large corporations, like Villa, Universal, Lilly, Dimms and various other companies filling the gap. This was the reason why many of MDP MP's voted for it, as these individuals have vested business interest. Watch and see the small to medium business dwindle and be replaced by a few big corporations. I am personally proud of those individuals who voted against the budget. This vote was the perfect reflection of those who are fighting for the people and those who are fighting for the(ir) business interests. I think MDP should publicize the MP's who stood for the people and those who sold out. This was a big deal.......

MDP should stop the party politics and get back to the ideals of a popular movement which it was based on.

Freed

2006-09-22T06:43:00.000+05:30

Anni has be released. Which is GREAT. Now what does this mean? what is maumoons strategy? why would he release anni..
Well.. for one thing he is not free as such.. rather he was released from house arrest but charges stays. Which will for sure be used in any moment when anni think of making trouble. How ever this is a stupid strategy, once anni is released there is no way they can drag him back without looking like a bunch of clowns in front of the international media and politics. Which maumoon and his gang might try nevertheless as they are a bunch of clown.. One thing he has to do is keep up the antimaumoon rhetoric. However given the circumstance of the deal between government and mdp, there might be a clause to stop this kind of antimaumoon rhetoric, given that maumoon is all about image and his stupid legacy that he wants to leave behind. .. i mean what more would an rich aging dictator on his way out need more than supposed legacy he would leave behind. Right now mdp stands in his way that could very well tarnish a fake history already written for the future.... in spite of what ever deal, anni needs to keep his anti maumoon voice loud... of course everyone wants change and democracy but a lot of people would also like to bring down maumoon in the most ugliest way imaginable. He has inflicted so much pain on so many ordinary people that to take him out of the picture silently will be a let down for a lot regardless of his age or whatever. Anni should keep bombasting maumoon to keep the energy high...

The support that anni got in addu and male on his return should send shivers down the maumoon gangs spine. This was a clear indication of the support the mdp still has in spite of their internal conflicts. Right now it seems that maumoons gang is focusing on the referendum and is going all out to convince the public that a presidential system will be the best. mdp will equate presidential system with maumoon and bank on peoples hate towards him to reject a presidential system. As i have been telling before anni can save us and i have faith in him. Right now, if the mdp plays it well they can win this referendum. I know i said that maumoon still has a clear majority of support as a president.. of course this is not because he is a better leader, just because people are returning the favor as well as they are forced to.. but i would think a referendum is much removed from maumoon and people will look at it more objectively i guess.. so there is a probability that maumoon's party will loose this... parliament has also passed that it will be government who would run the whole referendum process. This is totally messed since the election commission is made up of maumoons servant boys. i am sure mdp will come up with something.. or bring a whole lot of international observers..

New Kids On the Block

2006-09-08T03:34:00.000+05:30

A new mask on an old face wont change anything. The so called new Maldives crowed is a group of young "educated" kids acting as a facade for the blatant corruption done under the eyes of poor Maldivian. MDP has written extensively about the rift between the new Maldives kids and the old guard within the regime. This is not true; there is no such rift. They are all sleeping the same bed. The public spats between the government officials are just a show, to convince people that there is change and accountability. It is a deception mechanism to convince people that there is accountability. Bloody wake up people.. Think of this... Does anyone.. anyone who is reading this think that any of the people NEW or OLD have the guts to even in the slightest manner to criticize let alone publicly challenge one of the gang members without the permission from the top. I can’t believe that people fall for this swindle. Maumoon is in power and everything that goes out to public is carefully scripted. The actions by the old and new are rehearsed and choreographed to fit their agenda.
What shames lie in these so-called educated youth. What good is their education, if it is used to keep the old wheels turning. So much public funds wasted on these youths. I would call it waste of their own youthful energy when they could be fighting for the people. Instead they spend the energy trying to fix and delude the public of their master’s actions. Frankly, they will get away with it. The regime will change, and people will forget what these kids did to this nation. Yet how can they spend the rest of their life with a clear conscience. How can they look at themselves and say, yes I have done something for the betterment of the society. Don’t these people know that in our eyes they are just fools dancing to their puppet master. In my eyes they are cowards, uneducated, uncivilized bunch of kids no different from the parteys roaming around the streets of this country. The parteys are addicted to drugs the new Maldives addicted to money. Both groups should be sent to rehab. Addiction is a disease.

The other group Business Maldives group; Dean, Champa, Buruma etc are the clown puppets who are out there throwing their money in the hope of buying poor Maldivian. Sure they can buy them. Most Maldivian live below UN poverty line, so a little bit of money means their rent, education for kids, food on the table. Why would they not get sold out. Regardless of how much people hate maumoon and in spite of the blatant pain inflicted on them, most Maldivian are forced to give up their morals and beliefs for their survival. Nice huh... its perfect.. deprive the people, get a bunch of people super rich and then buy them off.. like giving bits of cheese to a mouse.... Look at Buruma, he is lost on both sides.. the average Maldivian resents him now, the DRP resents him, Maumoon resents him. He is the perfect puppet. Rich and powerless. You would think with money comes power. Not in this case, Buruma is a lost case, he is the one who will be vilified the most in the coming months.. The people, DRP, and MDP will crush him in the public eyes. DRP will crush him as a punishment as well as his alignment with illiyas. MDP will crush him for him defecting to DRP and MDP will be forced to do it to get the voters support. The people of this country are tired of this puppet.

It will be a long time this country will get cleaned up. It is infested too deep for too long. It is not MDP or some new kids on the block that will save us.

wakeup

2006-09-04T03:58:00.000+05:30

Now that I can post again, I will be posting new entries regularly.
Politically it has been calm. Each side is slowly getting ready for the fight in 2008 election. As it stands maumoons party will have a sure win. He has shuffled his cabinet in such a way that all the big business persons are in his circle now including buruma, dean, and the rest of the thieves. politically a fine move, but in the eyes of everyday people these are business people who sold their morals, values and patriotism to a few dollars. such a shame to be called Maldivian. in their eyes I guess they are fighting for freedom and justice but deep down I guess they know how much wrong they are inflicting on poor Maldivian. How can all these resorts be owned by just a few, how can all the big business be owned by a handful, and what is left, the fishing is to be privatized and sold to the bidders. Another business that would be owned by the big mafias. Now that the business people are running this country, they are privatizing everything and it is ultimately the ones who design the policies end up owning the business. Man this place is in such a mess that even mdp cant save it now. Everything is sold, owned and leased by and for the few people who are sleeping in the same bed. Pretty disgusting huh, worst part is that down the chain so many of the Maldivian are blindly supporting to keep them there. How did we end up in this mess?
mdp and the government are making deals, this is nothing but a way to keep the masses under control now that the government knows that the population is itching to come out and demand. I do not think mdp should negotiate with crooks. the people of this country should come out on the street until the government falls and our constitution gets amended to the will of the people, until such time this country will go down the drain.
The hope of maumoon leaving despite of mdp's constant rhetoric is a lie. maumoon will never leave and he is not planning to leave. mdp should stop getting these false hope high. the youth is getting tired cause the job that was to be finished in six months had dragged on for years. youth of this country does not have patient and mdp has let them down and it would be hard to get the trust back. the only person that can still save us is anni. I don’t know why I have so much faith in anni but he is my hero and I still believe that he is our savior. no wonder the government has locked him up for so long.
I wish anni would become more proactive while in house arrest and be more public so we will not loose hope in the fight for freedom and justice. please anni wake up and save us

tic..tic...tic..

2006-05-17T04:59:00.000+05:30

I was unable to upload my entries from my location. Here are few entries I wrote during that time..
This is an entry I wrote on 05/17/06 . I will be uploading regularly from now on. For those of you who emailed me about the blog; I was unable to upload but will continue to bring out my views of maldives life and politics...

.. Well let’s see where we are right now. President of MDP Ibra has quit his post. It seems that he has some differences between chairperson Anni regarding issues of how to tackle the current government- through mass protests or through diplomacy.
I am of the firm belief that diplomacy will not prevail within the current atmosphere. I will try to make my point here. diplomacy is a deal.. Not necessarily a democratic resolution. In the current context obviously the government has the upper hand, hence they will dictate the deal. The democratic ideal of the government is so far gone that no amount of diplomacy will fix it. Unless of course all the high ranking immoral officials resign and we rewrite our vague constitution (again). Which is not going to happen...
I think Anni is trying to create a situation where the pressure of the people will eventually prevail. Like that happened in Nepal. However Maldives is different from Nepal, for one thing Maldivians still hold on to the ancient belief of class system. Secondly there is an ingrained fear of the security force, which has been systematically entrenched within the psyche of the citizens. I think Anni is trying to continually bring the people on to the street until the gatherings become a cat and mouse game, between the security forces and the people. I see a long process before Anni and MDP can jolt the long held fear of the people of this country. By then it might be too late, presidential election is to take place in 2008 and I wonder if this is enough time for the people of this country to break free from the past. Contrary to MDP's rhetoric, if an election was held today Maumoon's party will win easily. It is not that MDP does not have grassroots support, they do have a huge support base. However the current government already has money, influence, and force to tilt the sentiments in any direction they want. Maumoon has already started his campaigned by commencing the Atoll chiefs gathering in the capital male'. You can already start to see the headlines "The President says Atoll development has always been a top priority of the Government", "The President and the First Lady open the Kudakudhinge Hiyaa alternative care home in Villingili. The President calls on parents and guardians to nurture children with love, care and affection and to teach them good manners and social values", "The President urges parents and guardians to reaffirm their resolve to nurturing children in a loving and caring atmosphere", "The President calls on Atoll Chiefs to deliver services to residents in all Atolls under an equal and harmonised policy mechanism. ". You will start to see an influx of these in the coming months...
I think MDP is running out of time.... fast.

Back from....

2006-03-01T07:55:00.000+06:00

I was unable to upload my entries from my location. Here are few entries I wrote during that time..
This is an entry I wrote on 1/03/06 . I will be uploading regularly from now on. For those of you who emailed me about the blog; I was unable to upload but will continue to bring out my views of maldives life and politics...

Well a lot has been going on in ths country... sometime back MDP organized a mass gathering. It was a gathering yes.. but any gathering that would not top the previous gathering will hold no real power. I guess mdp compleltey underestimated the governmnet and its powers. from the very onset the governmnet controlled media started a campaing of warning the citizens about gathering. although the constitution guarentees these gatherings there is still a lot of fear instilled within the ordinary people from years of prosecuting individuals who gather in public and actaully even private places. its going to be real hard to get the masses to gather unless its a spontanious act like the black friday where there was an unprising due to the governmnet shooting some inmates and killing some of them through toture. I am sad to say that this gathering was a failure and mdp should stop calling for mass gatherings if they cant get the people to come out. I must add that the number of people in theses gaterings is not a barameter for the support of mdp, most of the people stay at home simply beacsue they will be thrown in jail or will loose their job or loose other social benifits. This is how the government operates with the help of the natioal security and the polics force. people are gettting frustrated with mdp not being able to topple this government. mdp should reiterate that this fight is going to be hard and long. listen to the speeches of bush on terror.. mdp should make the masses understand that removing gayyoom wont be an easy thing rather than painitng the picture that gayyoom might flee any minute now.. HE WONT. why would he? he is an elected president and there is no reason for him to flee (at least in his mind). now that the party system is introduced, his predecssors will carry on building the empire as long as drp stays in power.

Mr.President

2006-01-27T05:49:00.000+06:00

This is an entry I wrote on the 6th Jan but never got to finish... I will write another entry on the gathering of MDP recently..

Adduvas news published the account details of loans given to high ranking government officials including ministers, high ranking police and military personals, top level judicial and religious leaders, by the presidents office from various social funds. I see nothing wrong with someone applying for a loan, which each and every individual of the Maldives have a right to do. However the problem lies in giving and selecting individuals. Why should ministers take loans to build mansions while majority of the society live below UN poverty line? This is only the tip of the iceberg, and the president’s office is scrabbling to get their PR in high gear, and have released a statement saying the need for protecting individual’s privacy. Well Mr. President, how about we protect the individuals privacy by not broadcasting drug addicts names before they are prosecuted, why not protect the privacy of individuals who are living with HIV in Maldives, why not protect the privacy of masses when your police force barges in without warrants, why not protect the privacy of masses when your secret service listen to our phone conversations, why not protect the privacy of citizens when you snoop on individuals emails; yet you advocate a news paper to uphold privacy of individuals on a loans given from public funds. Dear president, these are public funds, and the public has all the right to know how much of their money has been paid and by who. It is not like this newspaper published someone’s daily account history but rather what should have been public knowledge in the first place. Mr. president, could you please tell me how these people walk on our streets without paying back our money while your forces run after ordinary citizens, including students with outstanding students loans. Oh yes.. the first, second and third education project. A loan given by the World Bank for higher education of Maldivian students. Under the scheme your government required each student to pay back 50% of the loan in 5 years. Yet your ministers are living in mansions with millions in debt and counting. Your friends have failed to pay bed tax from resorts yet you fail to do anything. Your partners are importing hundreds of items for their business without paying there due import duty. Mr. President, your popularity has waned and no matter what you do, there is no way of winning back the heart and mind of the people. Your generation is gone, and I dream that it will be better for our children.. we are the lost generation. Mr. President, I don’t know if it just you are the people around you that’s deceiving you of the sentiments of the population. No sir, I am not aligned with any political party no I really care about the parties. However I can assure you that your time is up and you are 15 years late in moving on. The legacy you planned to build was not destroyed by MDP or any other political group, rather by you and the greedy thugs around you. Mr. President, do you see the plight of the outer islanders. What you need to give them is strong policies that will have a long lasting effect on the community. Policies that would make them self-sustaining create jobs make them producers. Most of your ministers are arrogant and selfish; whose children are studying all over the world while the children of the commoner is trying having their ends meet. Mr. President, when did you stop caring for the masses? Look at the resort owners, what have they done to the people of this country. When are you going to truly nationalize these resorts and distribute their income equally? You started with a socialist government, with empty promises. When you knew you cant fulfill them you have switched to a capitalist model, in order to please the rich. Mr. President, we are not dumb fools, you would have been thrown away if it was not for your security force who touchier and kill innocent people...Mr.president, how do you even sleep at night while inflicting so much pain to the very ordinary people of this small nation. The time of pretending that you are unaware of these wrong doings are over.. you know every little detail of what goes in this country. you robbed and shared the loot with your fellow friends. Mr. President, are you to tell me that you are unaware when the police shot and killed our fellow prisoners. No Mr. President.. You knew and you gave the command to shoot. In this small country no police personal would ever pull a trigger without your command. You are an evil dictator hiding behind a mask of innocence. You use religion as a facade to propagate your sins. Yes! You are cunning and intelligent. unlike our previous rulers you shared the booty with your close associates in order to use them as pillars to hold you up there. Mr. President, I will not shed a single teardrop on the day you leave and the streets of this country will be filled with jubilation and celebrations.

(S)Election of a leader

2005-12-23T01:19:00.000+06:00

mdp elects a new leader. a leader who would lead us to a post maumoon era. let me personally congratulate ibra for winning this vote and all others for securing their seats within mdp.
As I was saying in my previous post about the division within mdp, that is between the addu runners and the male' elites are obvious-i dont want this widening gap between the two factions to become the demise of this party. I am not trying to recapitulate what people have written on other pro government websites. but I agree to the fact that none of the addu candidates were elected, this does say a lot in terms of the popular creed within mdp ledership and where mdp is heading. I have become more and more wary of mdp dealings now that the results are public. how did mdp, fighting for the very ideals of democracy end up looking so skewed?
I do not say that the votes were rigged. this was a fair election unlike all of maumoon's elections done in 26 years.... However one should not only stress about the working procedure of the election but also the system it use..this election clearly unmasked the flaws of democarcy. how could a small nation like us try to mimic a western style democracy from letter to letter? How could 200 or so voters represent the ideals of a whole population. yes yes..they were representatives, i agree. But does the people representing these people have a say on what these representatives voted for? this would have worked in a mature democracy where these representatives were really "representatives" of a certain distict. I also do not think that the populations of rural islands knew what was going on... why did mdp not hold a country wide poll in electing the positions.. this was one time that this nation could have been proud to elect a leader and really nullify maumoon's farcical elections? how could mdp even think that this population is mature enough to have a party election in such a scurry and suddenly elect a LEADER? no one doubts that this is how its conducted in other democratic nations.. but as I have been saying in all my posts,, we are different, we need a system that suits us.. and the way mdp elected the party leaders are unfair and undemocratic.
I am pretty sure mdp knew this.. yes they knew.. yet they went ahead cause they wanted specific individuals to hold certain positions... and their excuse was that this was the way it was done in other countries. what a cheap excuse. I am utterly disgusted that the members of mdp had not voiced out their concerns regarding their own party's conduct. true empowerment is when one could critically be self reflexive and look at her/his own self and own party to root out flaws. anyways may be I am the only one sweating about this and this was really the popular yearnings of the people.. As for me I will still hold on to what I have said and from this day will not support mdp...

In my quest to figure out which party to sign up, I have been able to eliminate .. drp and mdp as my choices.. however anni will still remain as my hero regardless of his position in mdp.

anyways enough grousing.. I was also pondering why Dr. waheed did not get elected. he certainly seemed popular, definitely amongst mdp general public. my only impression is that people want someone with louder rhetoric unlike waheed who seems to be much more prudent. Having said that, days of diplomacy with maumoon is over and looks like ibra is the kind of person who can drag maumoon down- diplomatically or not.. I will be waiting to see Dr. Waheed's next step. Funny thing is that Ibra being the mdp leader is so much better for drp as well. Dr. waheed would have killed drp by absorbing the educated force who are still reluctant to join mdp. During the run up to the mdp elections, I was reading the government websites and was surprised to see all the vilification of ibra on their sites. At that time I was pretty confused as I thought their aim would be to revile Dr.waheed since he is a much bigger threat in the long term. Now I know.. they were just playing the game and I think the government knew all along that the person they disparage would be gettin better support from the mdp public. Now both DRP and MDP are happy with the elected individuals..

at the end of the day I think its adduians who suffered greatly in this mdp election. I also think that mdp knew that if they have held a nation wide poll the party will be filled by adduians since most of their members are from this atoll. I think the DRP wanted anyone but Dr.waheed and they got their wish.

The above post are just my random ponderings regarding the mdp election. The thoughts are not necessarily true or factual. I urge the readers seek their own truth. for those who email me about the factual errors in my writing and those who email slander on issues they do not agree, please do not email me as I will not reply, you are more than welcome to correct the error by leaving a public feedback.

A Leader is not a man...Its a Concept

2005-12-07T23:15:00.000+06:00

less than a weeks before mdp will have its general election. I wonder how this will turn out? It looks like a clear division has started to form within mdp. this division is not really along party lines but rather amongst the people (mdp and drp) who are fighting to bring "adduans" in to the maldives political forefront and those faction that want to retain the power within the male' elites. hence waheed, i think will be the sure winner as the majority of the players want to retain the power in the hands of male elite. sick, i know.. one wonders the very essence of democracy, not to say that adduans being in power would be good or bad but the fact that the very people who are fighting to bring true democracy to this country is laying its foundation through undemocratic means. than again may be that’s democracy, maybe its all about how good you are able to sell your product to the masses rather than the actual product itself. In any case for now people just need anything but the current government so the masses don’t really care if the power is retained in male or addu. this whole addu vs male might seem an over blown comment but if one looks deep in our history there has always been a struggle and a fight between the male' elites (who most of them are adduians too) and the addu community in the south.
Adduans in spite of their hardship seem to be one of the most progressive atoll in maldives. Most people will argue this is because of the British naval base during the 1940's. However to think that a few years of a naval base to have such a profound impact for a few generations might be too superficial. I am no historian or know anything about this atoll, but i am pretty sure there must be other historical reasons. anyhow..
the above paragraph was written a few weeks back and never got to finish it.. so i will try to continue here.. it looks like the division is between waheeds camp and iburas camp are widening. personally i do not know any of these two people and i have not signed for any party. but after much debate i have chosen to support waheed, not that i will actively support him or join mdp. but just reiterating my preference. this is of course subject to change. i have reasons too. it looks like the male' elites and the business community want to elect ibura. these include the drp, the illyas and yaamin gang. let me deviate a little here. when i say drp illyas and yameen i do not mean there is a division amongst the drp. as long as maumoon is in power these three forces will feed each other irrespective of their desire to come/remain in power in a post maumoon era as they all exist because of each other. anyways back to waheed and ibura. as far as i can see they want to bring ibura to power in the hope of easy manipulation or easy buy out (please note that i am not saying that ibura is as such.. i am just noting the reason behind drps choice of promoting ibura). waheed on the other hand has had a lot of experience in the international stage as a leader which is the reason why i have decided to support him. long before any of the other contestants, waheed was fighting for reform many years back and was driven out of this country. in a way waheed holds a sort of nostalgic memory. i remember when i was a kid and saw the thumbs up sign all over male' and was sure the fruit of revolution was near. years has passed...and the new kids on the block will have the same jubilant ecstasy this time too.. i just hope this generation will taste the fruits that we never got to taste... regardless of who come to power.
drp has also gone on the offensive. sure enough their support seems to be increasing too..
oh one more thing.. i heard maumoon and sappes interview on bbc radio.. gosh both these people were pathetic. they were like two little kids complaining to big daddy.. for crying out loud.. GROW UP GUYS... maumoon must have been on a special diet to egoistically claim that he initiated reform..doesnt the president know that each president takes over from the predecessor for the very purpose of reform. If not than where is the progress.. I guess this is the admission that for more than 20 years we have been stagnant.. than came sappes chance.. he just ranted and finally said there is progress made and this was because of peoples power.. dear sappe that is democracy.. and that admission renders all your previous statements false.. let me tell you something.. Nothing has changed at the very deeper level. Yes party system, and all that have been formed but those are very superficial elements of a democracy.... what is at the root of any society is their deeper ideological values, thinking and aspirations. This has not changed..and maumoon is doing all he can to maintain this and bring about cosmetic facelift to please international communities who are too eager and happy to play along as long as their corporations can operate the maldivian resorts...at the same time to think that displacement of maumoon will solve all our problem is fictitious. The social matrix and our societies power system is so intertwined with our ideologies that to think muamoon as a single man holding the power is naive...let me quote this.. you are agree or not…Power, according to Foucault
“must be analyzed as something which circulates, or rather as something which only functions in the form of a chain. It is never localized here or there, never in anybody’s hands, never appropriated as a commodity or piece of wealth. Power is employed and exercised through a net-like organization… [Individuals] are not only its inert or consenting target; they are always also the elements of its articulation. …Individuals are the vehicles of power, not its points of application” (Power/Knowledge, 98). i fear maumon’s demises will result in the birth of another dictator and the power matrix will remain un-rattled.

Who is going to Lead the Leaders?

2005-11-07T07:07:00.000+06:00

Anni has been transferred to house arrest after being taken for a court hearing. The more the government push anni around the more my heart goes for anni and his true heroism. I don’t know this guy or even met him.. in fact I haven’t even seen him in real life except on TV and papers. He is slowly becoming this mythical figure amongst the most remote islands and communities. In the long run the government will have to completely eliminate this guy or else "the story of anni" will keep on surfacing. It looks like the British opposition has started to take an interest in Maldives politics.. its about time.
From the look of things the MDP is gaining more and more ground and DRP (the government party) has completely lost touch with reality. It has started to become costly to keep a dying regime afloat and sooner than later the whole clan will sink on its own weight. Most of the people who sign up for DRP is either connected with the current government, and to keep these people hooked the government is pumping money in all directions 24/7. I wonder how long this will last... it looks like the government is in its last lag and doing all it takes to keep it going until the next election in 2008.
I have no doubt that MDP has more support at the grass root level. But its still missing the intellectuals and educated youths. I think the time of underground guerrilla interventions are over and MDP needs to clean up its images. Bring in more youth and new faces in to the forefront. A few weeks back MDP has called for its general elections and a handful of people have applied for these. I would advice MDP members to make their choices wisely as this election will determine the success of this movement. I really do not have any real hope in these people except for Dr. Waheed. But I have to ask him where was he all these years when our brothers where tortured and killed? The last time I saw Dr. Waheed was when I was a kid and he was running for the MP of male'. As soon as he got elected the government forced him to flee and since recently lived abroad. Still this is no excuse to come out now and suddenly become a fighter while rest of the people have sacrificed so much to bring us to this point. Munahvar and Zaki two former government ministers are also running in this election with the opposition. Now, I have no problem with people changing sides and I do believe that there are good and fair individuals within the government working for the people of this country. Having said that I do not personally think that these two individuals ever worked for the people while they were in the government. Both of them had their hands dirty up to their elbows in questionable dealings and taking profit from various business transactions. Just ask these individuals to make their business records public and see how much investments and shares they have in companies that inflict so much pain on the most rural communities. Then their is Ibra the male' MP. He was deep in corruption when he was working for the ministry of education. Sometimes I ask myself where the hell was Ibra (male MP) and Shihaab (male MP) when Anni and a handful of heros went and did a peaceful sitting at the republican squire? These were the two MPs that that was suppose to show the whole world that the people of this country was behind this. I am disgusted at these two for empty rhetoric. Shihaab recently went to shake hands with Maumoon on the day of Eid. My guess is that shihaab is trying to please both the crowd specially the people on the boarder. However he should know that, Maldives is not US, and the outcome of polls hardly depend on the undecided. Most Maldivian have already taken a side so just by shaking hands with the president you lost more support than really gain any. I have serious doubts about Shihaab. He seem to be a mole within MDP. He is hardly present in any gatherings and never have the guts to really give any public speeches against the government. He will be scoring the least in my books. Then there is mody whom I do not have any real info so I will refrain from passing any judgment on him.
Anni will get my vote any day any time. Recently I have started to have a new found admiration of Jenny which I never had before. She has recently been convicted of some bogus terrorism charges. I think these are the people who should lead us even during a transitional period. These are the people who sacrificed everything for us.

365 days later

2005-10-13T07:00:00.000+06:00

things seems to be calm these last few weeks. talk of anni being released due to local and international pressure is in the air but i highly doubt this. if a foreign country was going to help anni they would have done so already. I am ashamed of the UK government for not stepping in. Then again as long as big UK hotel chains and corporations like Cable and Wireless are sucking the money out of this country i see no reason why they would step in and fight for an individuals right. so here is how it works the European tourists pump in millions of dollars in to this economy through tourism, yes great.. fantastic. But most of these hotels are partly owned by foreign companies so majority of the money leaves this countries economy. The few Maldivian business people who have shares in the resort have invested outside this country so the money flows out of this country once more. Majority of the staff in most resorts are foreigners so once again the money flows out of our economy. the portion of the money that actually gets in to the economy gets further more sucked by dhiraagu, the sole telecom operator partly owned by UK based Cable & Wireless. so now you see the food chain and why no foreign government would help the people of this country or any country if you think about it... oh what the hell..

Slowly but surely this country is sinking on its own weight. It is highly expensive to float an empire. Most of the top jobs have been given to big corporate business people, while completely disregarding all the ethical and moral values. This is done by the very person who shameless gave number of interviews on international and national media about reform. How can one talk of reform while slowly infecting the very root of this country. Economically the country is in dire condition, these business/politicians need to stuff their accounts while there is something left of this economy...Maldives will "sink".

Its been a year since I have been writing this blog and what has changed? Nothing except a rearrangement of a bunch of ministers and top officials. At a fundamental level nothing has really changed. i am not talking about high raised buildings and paved roads i am talking about peoples thinking, their ideologies, educations, dreams, freedom, rights.. i can go on.. I am not talking about a change to some grand narrative of this country but on a very simple individual, personal level. It was wrong for us to think that change was going to be easy. it was wrong for MDP to give us the illusion that this would be a "cake walk". their rhetoric’s needs to change. this is a fight a sacrifice that people of this country needs to take and the fight is going to be a long and hard one. once again i do not support mdp and i am not even a member of mdp nor any other political party but as you can see without a doubt i want this administration to change. for a year i have been talking about a need to force the government to allow the atoll chiefs and island chiefs to be elected by the people of their respective area. i don’t understand why the mps and the opposition are not pushing for this. i think it is foolish for the opposition to try and bring down an elected president by the people rather would it not make much sense to try and change these selected cronies. sometimes i don’t know who these opposition figures work for.

Ali(ce) in Wonderland

2005-09-18T02:58:00.000+06:00

Thanks to Robert Mayer for his article CITIZENS’ JOURNALISM IN THE MALDIVES.

I was wondering why the professed revolution has never happened in this country, in spite of a quarter century of suppression, intimidation and corruption. What drives human societies to bring down their own government? We have read about the French revolution, Iranian revolution, and South African revolution; even the American Revolution. Why is the people of this country unable to stand up and crush a minority. Surely the will of the majority of a population is stronger than just a handful of minority. One popular argument is that the notorious national security and the police force are keeping the masses in check. This is certainly true, the police and army play a major role in keeping this society in control. BUT it was worst in France, South Africa and in Iran, during their revolution, the people who stood against the regimes way was shot, killed or they simply disappeared. Yet the people of these countries were able to bring about their sweet revolution. The majority of these countries were able to fight and win their freedom. How is it that a small country like Maldives with a majority of the population that detests the current regime is unable to achieve this revolution? Certainly the people of this country are not cowards, they have always been fighters. They have in the past brought a number of revolutions. Funny enough the current administration is a branch of previous freedom fighters, over time converted criminals. In search of an answer to this I have had a number of arguments and discussions with people and have come to the conclusion that the prize of such a revolution is not worth the blood sacrificed. In other words the booty of the war is not worth the fight. It is not just the fighters that will be subjected to intimidations and stripping of assets but family members, friends and even their business partners will be striped bare and ridiculed in the regime controlled media outlets. Is anyone prepared to pay this price and standup and fight to bring a group of MDP personals like Ibra, Shihaab, Zaki, Munavaru or even Gasim to lead this country. Will these people be able to set up a universal health care system, reform the current education system, implement transportation service and various other social needs? Unfortunately the people of this country clearly doubts that post revolution era will be any "rosier" or the least worth what they scarifice.

No doubt in a post revolution era we will get better freedom and wider representation in governing this country. But that is still not worth what the average Maldivian will loose in the fight. Why would I sacrifice everything I have worked for my entire life for a sweet moment of freedom- a little more freedom, everything a LITTLE better? The price of French revolution and end of South African Apartheid was astronomical. Their post revolution was worth the sacrificial blood.

Deep down we know that the post revolution era has all the signs of turning itself in to a dictatorship. I am in no way pointing this at MDP or any other political party here. Most of us know that this country is run by a handful of rich business tycoons anchored in Male' and the current administration is part of this elite circle. The dissolution of the current regime will not necessarily make our life any better than it is now as long as this elite circle controls this country. The poor people in the outer islands will always remain enslaved, as they have been for years. This is part of sustaining the economic system of this country (and many other capitalist societies). For true revolution we would need a new system every few years not just a swap of parties. Just because one gets the freedom to vote for either party and bring about a change in the faces we see in government (like we see in America every five years) does not mean that it does justice to democracy. This country needs more than a revolution. It needs a dream- the Maldivian Dream.

plan the plan

2005-09-07T11:46:00.000+06:00

Funny how themaldivian.org took and modified the first paragraph of my previous post and posted it on their website, just the portion praising the current admin. What a bunch of sly weasels. This is suppose to be an impartial website. Frankly all the websites are propaganda websites and trying to propagate some hidden agenda. There are no real venues for impartial news.. Maybe the gossips at the tea cafes are more authentic than the ones that these guys write on their websites.

Talks about Anni being freed is in the air. Personally I doubt this unless mdp makes a huge commotion proving that with or without Anni they have the vigor and determination to move forward. As of now it looks like gasim (current financial minister) who switched sides and Anni who is in jail are the spine of this party proving that they are not a party of the people. I think Ibra (male' Mp) should re kindle the party spirit more within male' and addu and prove to everyone that this is really a peoples party. There was one gathering of mdp held and the number of people there were amazing, they should organize more of these grass root gatherings... of course there was a little confrontation between the police and the mdp gathering regarding some speaker system. I can’t talk too much about this, as I was not present there.
Whatever the outcome of Anni's trail he has become a hero in my heart. I don’t know him nor never met him in real life but he has become the modern Robinhood of this country. Yes! I do agree that many of mdp members have personal hidden agendas. They hide in the backstage and try to run the show. My support for Anni is no reflection of my support for mdp. Anni, since the days of Sangu (a banned paper during the late 80’s) have been a fighter, sacrificed his whole life for the common good of the people. Like it or not he is going down in history as a hero.

The other day I was reading this article about the current GDP of the Maldives shrinking. The funny thing about GDP is that it is one of the stupidest yardstick to calculate the growth of a country. For those of you who would like to get a better sense of what GDP is please read:
Wikipedia entry
foe
Adbusters

In Maldives very few people really understand what GDP is (including me) I have no real idea of how it is calculated in Maldives but it looks like a tool that this government use in order to shift around its policies. I do not understand why the GDP should go down due to tsunami when it should go up if the promised rebuilding where taking place. Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
"GDP counts work that produces no net change. For instance, a hurricane destroying thousands of homes would not be counted by GDP, but the rebuilding of those homes would be."
In fact the GDP of this country should be rising. Yes the tourism industry was and is still in pretty bad shape, which is true, but also to counter this millions of dollars was donated to this country. I wonder if these donations were calculated as an income to this country and if it was used in calculating the current dip in GDP. Maybe the government should make a better effort in educating the public about what is going on with our economy and what money goes where, rather than expecting us to blindly trust an administration that spits a lie every time it opens it mouth.
Here is my interpretation, from our foreign minister (Ahmed Shaheed) interview to routers, where the current administrations solution for the current dip in gdp is to:

"Shaheed said the government was mulling the idea of setting up an oil refinery somewhere in the pristine island cluster best known for its five-star resorts, white sand beaches, turquoise lagoons and world-class scuba diving.
The government is looking to donors to help plug a $100 million budget shortfall, the first time the remote archipelago 500 miles (800 km) off the toe of India has ever done so.
It is also considering auctioning leases to build luxury hotels to bring in revenue, and is hoping to use some of around $360 million worth of aid pledged in the wake of the tsunami to ease pressure on the budget."

I have no idea how setting up oil refineries will help this small nation when the problem with oil is not necessarily refineries but the damn oil is running out. halash.. Empty.. Gone.. Finished.. Wake-up people.... oil will run out... so in the next 100 years we will be stuck with some stupid refineries that this current administration built with bottles of coconut oil to refine. This will end up like so many other ill thought policies of this country.. Remember the hovercraft they bought with taxpayer’s money and built a landing zone for it.. Remember the Laamu atoll Dhanaal build as a boarding school...remember the national airlines.. Remember the garment factories... remember the amount of cement they poured to build the male roads in their first try... remember the concrete water tanks that was build in every house hold in male... oh yes I am talking about all the ill policies and not mentioning the good actions.. Why???? Because until the current administration apologize and publishes the fact about the cost of these projects there is no way the people will stop commenting about these messed projects where OUR money just disappeared. Anyways back to the oil refineries.. Well, would it not make more sense for us to try and find ways for sustainable alternative more sustainable energy plans like wind, wave or solar power. These refineries will pollute our beaches and destroy our echo system ultimately destroying our only income- tourism. Does this administration even care about what might happen in the long run..?

Their second solution "auction islands". Now this smells fishy, this will be money grabbing political opportunity to please a lot of powerful corporations. This will in turn help to wade off any foreign pressure on the government. Like the Middle East and oil cartels Maldives uses islands to please the powerful hotel conglomerates that are large financiers of political parties in foreign countries. Here is a list of American hotel chains and how much they contribute to their parties:
opensecrets
Anyways this will also bring down the demand, as there will be surplus resorts.

I flipping don’t understand where the millions of dollars that come in to this country goes. On top of all the money it receives from resorts there are the donors as well. Its not like there is universal health care, pension plan, social housing projects, The only thing they spend the money is for education of less than 100, 000 people up to secondary education and about 500 students in higher education. and about a 500 students at university level. Where the F**** are the money that our forefathers sweat for????

Head or Tail?

2005-09-03T06:31:00.000+06:00

Sometimes I wonder what the best system would be for a little country like Maldives. A society where everyone is more or less connected in some way. What will be the consequences of a multiparty western style democracy? At this point I guess no body really knows but everyone is sure of one thing- we do not want the current administration or its ill thought policies. We are starting to see a lot of change; I must say lot of good and bold changes. Unfortunately the image of the current administration is tarnished and cannot be revived even by the notorious foregin PR farms operating in Maldives. I have been thinking about the changes that are being brought at a rapid pace and suddenly I realize what is happening. You see, all these 26 years the world around Maldives advanced and grew. Maldives was bogged down not only in terms of development (at a very fundamental level) but also its own government was operating with a mindset that was not fit for the current century. Hence the way they controlled its population and the propaganda machine started to fall apart. The continuous nationalistic songs on tvm, the Friday "kuthuba" (which was mainly used as a propaganda machine), radio, even the stage shows started to become a waste of time. Obviously the current administration realized this just the other day and is scrambling to modernize the propaganda machine and the way they controlled the masses. So the changes that you see are not really the change in bringing a more democratic system to this country but rather a new machine to keep churning the old grains. Lets look at what the current admin. has done. Appointing, Gasim, one of the riches person in Maldives, in charge of our treasure. Now, even a kid will know the consequence of this. Then he brings another rich resort owner (Dean) as our atoll minister. What’s going on? Is this administration selling our country to the big corporations? Where are our young educated people ready to take these important portfolios? Sadly opposition does not want to say anything about these powerful individuals because they are still salvating in the hopes that these figures will return to save them...pathetic... At the very fundamental level nothing has changed. As long as the system remains like this nothing will change. maumoon can swap as many heads as he wants but the plight of the masses will remain unchanged. Of course the feel good excuse of the elite will be, that by bringing such a rapid change the society may spiral in to chaos. This is just bull... freedom is not something that a society needs to be conditioned in to.
One of the very basic changes that this administration could bring is the election of atoll and island chief rather then placing hand picked corrupt government cronies in these positions. The current government knows that if they allow this that will be suicide. I really don’t understand why mdp and other opposition aren’t fighting for this cause. mdp is so infatuated in bringing maumoon down that they have lost any cohesive strategy. One cannot bring change by calling for the resignation of an elected government but rather start from the grass root level and try changing things at a much more fundamental level. Personally I think all the opposition parties should immediately call for the election of atoll and island chiefs rather than calling for resignation of an elected president (however questionable the election process was).
There is no doubt that mdp has the majority support of the masses and if they know how to play this right they will prevail. Secondly oppositions should stop wasting their energy in the hopes that world organizations and NGO's will come to their aid. World governments are as corrupt as the current Maldivian administration, they will not do anything unless they have something to gain and obviously they have much more to gain with the current administration in power.
Anyways I really hope that the people of this country and the opposition become ever more vociferous in calling for immediate elections of atoll and island chiefs. This will be the very first step for change in this corrupt system.

NOTE: This online journal is not aligned with any political party. The writing is not factual but my sole interpretations if the current situation. Thank you for those of you who have emailed me. I really appreciate it; I am unable to reply back as I do not want to be traced. The following posts are not submitted directly by me but I have to email to a friend abroad for submissions, again due to what might happen. Those who emailed about possible help, it would be great if you all can spread this link, as dhivehiobserver (our opposition mouth piece), themaldivian.org and factmaldives.com has blocked and banned us. Thank you all for the kind words...

Burn the Witches!!!

2005-08-25T00:39:00.000+06:00

thank you george w. bush, with your policy on terrorism you have clearly given a free pass to dictators and rouge states all around the world to prosecute anyone who stands between them and ultimate tyranny. how can the international media not even glance at this. last year the government was bombarded with criticism about the way they handled the protesters, this year nothing not even a wimp. than again what can the international community do? how can the international community question this government and in doing so bring out its very own double standard in dealing with issues of terrorism. gayoom has used the one tool that he was sure to get away with. for the international community the word terrorism has as much force as the word "heretic" had in the 16th century. thanks to bush and his neo con cabal. anyways enough bush bashing.

anni the main opposition leader has been charged- "an act to commit terrorism". word on the steet is that, someone gave a statement to the police stating that, anni in one of their conversations, to have said 'he would bring the current government down in 90 days... even if it means by using force' (this is a loose translation). i am no lawyer but does this account for an act to commit terrorism? if so, is it not a grave insult for all those people who are really dying around the world because of real acts of terrorism? secondly the "use of force" does not necessarily have to be physical force. by calling an election in 90 days a government can be forced to step down. anyways everyone in maldives except those delusional idiots who think they own this country knows that this is all a cover-up, a farce to dismantle the only real opposition to the current regime. through the use of its mighty "star force" the government is setting an example to the rest of the nation of what it can do to anyone who stand in its away. anni has yet again become the mannequin on display.

the whole mdp is in disarray, the switching of gasim over to drp (greedy coward), anni's arrest, dismantling of the meeting space of mdp, but most of all the PR war won by drp using the state controlled media and internet. i think anni will be prosecuted and jailed for not less than 3 years which will set him free after the general presidential election. mdp will start to see new faces at its very forefront. i do not think mdp will die as the government is hoping it would. I think mdp will survive but its very survival depends on the new faces that we will see in it. Although i bash the current administration, i do not support mdp either, simply because of the people at this party's top level. i am hoping that this whole fiasco will shake up the very center of mdp forcing them to give up its hidden agendas and root out those people with personal ulterior motives. mdp should start to seriously bank on the support it garnared from the most southern atoll- addu. looks like the mp's from this powerfull community are either asleep or bought out by the current government. mdp should hire a serious PR farm to bring its image back and revive its fight against tyranny.

what about the illegal gatherings and the violence and the mob and the fire and fear.. this is what the government is banking on to destroy the image of not only mdp but any opposition. unfortunately maldivians are more educated and literate (thanks to the current administration which deserves credit for such higher literacy rate in this country) to really fall for this. we all know that it is suicide for mdp or any opposition movement to even think of using violence to bring down an elected government. the people who created and propagated violence i will call the "violent third force" . they are neither government nor opposition.. here are some interesting links that we can reflect on and take notes about third forces

Mosnews
Africa files

politics aside, i truly hope that anni walks free for the sake of humanity, freedom and justice. the more the government flexes it muscle the more sympathetic i become towards mdp. who knows maybe the whole fear and intimidation tactic might backfire on the government and mdp might just win the hearts and mind of this nation through sympathy.

the above writing are my thoughts and is not intended to influence anyone’s thinking. this is not news nor can i guarantee the authenticity of facts in the writing. i urge the reader to seek the truth...

not a "cloud" in the sky

2005-08-19T08:22:00.000+06:00

as i said before gasim has sided with gayoom. hmmm this may have come as a surprise for many people but i have been reiterating that gasim is not a true freedom fighter. Wakeup Maldives, don’t you all see that all these business people who have gotten rich are people who have been spoon fed by maumoon. These are the pillars that’s holding the current administration in power. now i don’t have anything personal against gasim, but lets deconstruct this somewhat mythical figure.. gasim grew up under illiyas- the first ladies brother-now the health minister - former convicted criminal. under the permission from the top brass of this country gasim was given the sole import/distribution rights for oil. he didn’t work for it nor sweat for it like true entrepreneurs, it fell right on his lap. anyways soon he was to become the richest man in Maldives through the money he amassed from the exclusive oil rights. like they say rich gets richer, soon his assets grew from a fleet of ships to a fleet of resorts. today he is the minister of finance, under the current administration. next on his list will be to create a media empire. this is a figure that’s starting to remind me of Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. unlike most other business figures in Maldives, gasim gave away hundreds of scholarships for Maldivian students under a prerequisite of the world bank loan that he took. often his supporters will table his scholarship scheme as a reason to support this figure. please people wake up!! here is a business figure who has taken so much of our money. open your eyes and look at the resorts and his assets. These business people have an obligation to its people. i am truely greatful for his scholarships but that does not mean he is a good leader. nor does that mean that he is forgivan for the money he took from the people of this country. anyways his supporters should come up with something better than saying "gasim gave scholarships"
i bet we will start to see hundreds of posts and articles appearing about how gasim will try to transform the current administration. how he will try to fight the people from the inside. come-on people this is a guy who has got his life at stake. i cant believe that all this time people were banking on this figure. its like putting all the eggs in one basket. with the snap of the finger maumoon can just take away his resort and fleet of ship and throw him on the street. all this time he was protecting his own assets and slowly feeding his hunger for power.
my guess is this- when maumoon leaves he wants to make sure they install one of their figures so that the money, their business interest, and post maumoon prosecutions will be protected. whola! enters gasim a figure that has blinded the public with his greens. gasim has been protecting his assets so either way in a post maumoon era his business will be safe. when i saw the news about gasim given the permission to establish a TV station i knew the deal between maumoon and gasim has been closed.
so how will this effect the mdp?? i think gasim going to drp will be a good thing for mdp. slowly this party will start to become a real peoples party. its time mdp weed out fake patriots and freedom fighters. we are in need of a party that has no hidden agendas and one who does not run on greens but rather on values.

i can not guarentee that the above writing is factual. these are what i see and what i hear. if i have given wrong facts you are welcome to correct them.

by the way,, i was just going through my previous posts and came across this post i wrote almost a year ago when gasim was jailed.. http://mymaldives.blogspot.com/2004/10/sleepless-in-maldives.html

To Kill a Mockingbird

2005-08-16T11:11:00.000+06:00

its calm on the surface but i see an "unseen' tsunami rushing this way. prove me wrong but as i have been saying over and over again, majority of the people hate maumoon and most people want him to go. majority of the population of this country is youth and they are ready to stand up against the old guard. these young people are not all drug addicts and criminals as the government have been propagating. amongst them are young youths, fathers, mothers, sisters and bothers who are rising up against the current administration. its just a matter of time before the wave will sweep over the islands. just a matter of time. no matter what the current administration does the wave will get bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger. no matter what!!... the situation has gone beyond no return.. majority of the Maldivian hates any form of violence. its just too small and people are too closely related to really take up arms against each other. having said that this brotherly love and close connection also leads to a bonding amongst the people. one bad thing happening to someone will have a chain reaction that stretches to members of their extended families. over a quarter of century (cant believe its been this long) lot of bad things happened to a lot of good people. people have found the common enemy which the mdp is heavily banking on (no wonder they cant stop bashing maumoon). unlike mdp the current administration is scrambling hard trying to create their monster to rally against and bring the people together.. for them its the parteys and criminals. Unfortunately this is slowly backfiring at them, because the reason why a society has disintegrated in to the hands of parteys and criminals are living fact that this administration failed to fulfill its social obligation in terms of education and rehabilitation. the parteys and criminals running rampant on the streets are consequences of the current administration and not the work of mdp. it was not so long ago that the administration tried to create "wahabees" as a monster, for the people to rally against but they failed as a huge majority started to realize that not everyone with a beard are extremist nor violent.
i will not be surprised if more properties get damaged in the coming days and months. This administration needs to create fear and panic amongst the people to strip away what’s left of their freedom. there is a huge parallel between how maumoon plays his game and how bush is playing his game. both are stripping away liberties of its own people for supposed protection. media outlets in both countries are owned by big rich companies completely aligned with the administration. spying and collection of private data of its own people have been at an all time high. both parties in both countries are completely detached from its people and fighting for their own personal goods..what i am trying to say is that maumoon is the perfect pawn for the west. so mdp should stop having wet dreams about getting any real help from any outside country or any real media outlet for that matter.
at the moment mdp has very little choice. the government has shown burumaa and the rest of the people on the boarder that "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror.." one reason for mdp to move so hastily in my view was that they feared that they were loosing buruma to drp. one of their biggest financiers. from the articles on factmaldives.com one can surely read that drp has already offered burumaa the vice presidency and last few days event should be deciding factors for buruma. secondly mdp through its fair and free election policy can never promise anything for anybody because people will be elected rather than selected. those people who are fighting for freedom right now have no guarantee that they will have a position when maumoon leaves. and frankly that’s how it should be, people who fight for freedom should do it for the love of the people and country. these freedom fighters are not necessarily good politicians nor leaders they are simply our heros and should remain like that. so burumaa and rest of the freedom fighters should not even dream of having an automatic place in the newly formed Maldives.

the views expressed here are my simple thoughts. they are not necessarily true and i urge the reader to seek the truth on their own.

Baagiverin

2005-08-14T11:20:00.000+06:00

I am not here to bring any report on what’s happening in male because frankly, no one knows what is happening. Yes people did gather, how many on what location for how long, people don’t really know. Anyone who has lived in Maldives will know that its hard to differentiate between the spectators and the participants, so there are lot of discrepancies between the figures. At the same time the number of people who came out does not reflect the support of MDP nor the support of DRP. Those who refrained from coming out is not gauge to measure the support for the current administration. Those who did not come out, did so simply because they were scared of being prosecuted.
The whole thing turned out to be a mega blow for MDP. They played right in to the hands of the current administration. Slowly but surely the current administration is labeling MDP as a terrorist organization with premeditated attempt to over throw an elected legitimate government. Once this gets sold to the international media and organizations MDP will have a hard time convincing that they are not terrorist group. Under the present environment no international media will even think of giving a voice to such an organization. Under the pressure from the current administration the SARC countries might very well label MDP as a terrorist organization. This will be the end of MDP. The articles on DO and other documents produced by MDP and its supporters are written facts that this was a premeditated action to over throw a government. I bet more wepons and other proofs that this is a premediated attempt will be manufactured by the current administration. I wouldnt even be surprised if they even invent a word for terrorism if we dont have one already.
The arrival of Maumoon as a hero a savior was all orchestrated and planned. The current government played the game real smooth. I cant believe the heads of MDP did not see this. Were you all seriously thinking that Maumoon just fled to Singapore and left the country for takers. Or was MDP thinking that by spreading false news they could encourage people to come out. Maldives is different, the people of this country are the most passive peace loving people anywhere on earth, to think that the majority of them will come out was a huge miscalculation. The only way to boil the blood of "dhivehin" is during an incident like last years. Do you seriously think that Maldivians will remember what happened 12 months ago. We forget and forgive very easily, very quickly. So until there is an incident that would naturally drive the masses to gather there is no way people will come out on the street.
MDP is in serious trouble and unless mouth pieces like DO and minivan news get their act together the average people will start to loose trust in them. This is all a PR war between MDP and DRP most the Maldivians under the present leadership left the masses in the dark about what politics is, their right and what it means to be a citizen. If MDP continue to act like this they will loose the PR war easily to DRP.

Eye spy with my little I's

2005-08-12T13:03:00.000+06:00

Someone commented on Factmaldives.com to my previous entry titled "messeged in a bottle".. here is his/her comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I refer my comments to opinion of EYE, dated 8th of August.

I would like to note that we as Maldivians had something no other country had - our faith in Islam and peace, the former and latter truly being demonstrated in reality. In retrospect we did enjoy it though we took it for granted! we do not have peace anymore, we do not feel secure anymore - merely lost due to some individuals motivated for personal justifications rather than for the true benefit of our nation - Can anyone really Quantify in Economic terms the benefit of having peace and stability that we have enjoyed yet have not even realised that we once had it - Well this country accompolished what it achieved due to the President and his administration.
Your comments now will be: what about our people and thier wealth, their
freedom, their social security and the list goes on!!!

Is there a perfect society, a perfect government, Do you really think MDP has the capacity to run a Government when they have self defeated themselves by displaying no strategic planning nor any discipline.

I am sure the current administration has room for improvement, like any other government and a society of this size needs stabilty and peace for our
progression rather than unsubstantiated arguments to further create unrest. Why not consider a much more civilized approach to harness your opinions. Talk Sense, talk reality.

Talk sense, Talk reality. - Thursday, August 11, 2005 5:17 PM
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Talk sense, Talk reality.

Before I say anything let me point out a few words from your post "... unsubstantiated arguments to further create unrest. Why not consider a much more civilized approach to harness your opinions. Talk Sense, talk reality."

First the posts i create here are my own thoughts and is not intended to inflame, incite or anger anyone. If my wordings seem harsh and unjustified I take it back and apologize. However that does not mean I do not stand by what i have said in the previous posts. When you say "consider a much more civilized approach to harness your opinions..." I see nothing uncivilized about the way I write my posts. In every post I have reiterated that these are my simple thoughts. my opinions, my dreams.. What is the more civilized approach? Secondly I am not a supporter of MDP in fact I hate MDP as much as I hate DRP, again my previous posts will be witness to that. If you feel I have misrepresented facts I would appreciate if you could clear them out for me..
Yes. there are a lot of things that the current administration did right. For example I will commend the current administration and specifically presidents policy for controlling Islamic extremism. However having said that bare in mind this same policy lead to stereotyping and a lot of backlash against decent law abiding people too. There are other good policies and projects that the current administration did. Unfortunately I am not here to sing the 'sanaa" for the current administration simply because what good that’s done, they did because it is their duty as public servants. In my opinion if you chose to become a public figure, post like this and various other avenues of criticism is inevitable. If one cannot take that than he/she should refrain from becoming public servant or a public figure. I do not think or rather was my intention, for my posts to defame and character assassinates anyone.

Again- Yes the current administration did a lot of good to this country but that is not a free ticket to rule for life. Every government has its own problem but not every government deny its own problems. While the rest of the world grew around us, this administration left us bogged down on ever changing policies. Please do not point you finger at male' because that is a tiny dot from a whole nation. Ministers of this current administration misused funds over and over again for 27 odd years. Our public money. You walk around the streets of male'. Go to the market area and ask the people around, these are open secrets in this small community. You ask me to prove it.. I CAN'T... as an individual from the public, i do not have any obligation to prove anything.. but as public servants (the government) you have a huge obligation to prove to its people that no funds are/were misused. It is a governments obligation to keep on showing to the public what it is doing with the money and resources. Does anything get debated when huge amounts of our limited resources get used on projects. You see... the current administration works on the policy "TRUST US.. WE ARE DOING THE RIGHT THING.. " maybe its the right thing, but this is not how democracy works. Yes the president H.E Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom is the elected president and I have no doubt about it, and yes that means a lot of individuals vested a lot of trust on this person. But this does not mean that he is immune from judgment. He will have to answer for all his action before the public and in the end in front of GOD.
I do agree with you that there are no perfect societies or perfect governments but why is it so hard for the current government to say this publicly to its people. Why have they never in the last 27 years publicly come out and say "we were wrong and we will take responsibility for our actions" Never have i heard this. Ill thought policies and huge misappropriation of funds get swept under the carpet without any public acknowledgement. Seems like everyone in the current administration has some sort of a god given immunity. Too many bad things have added up under this administration to easily out weigh the goods. Too many people have been hurt.
You ask me to look at peace and security that this government has brought us. How can one admire peace and security implemented by stripping its people's freedom and liberty. Peace and security should come from protection not from restriction.

The above thoughts are not meant to hurt anyone or incite violence. My posts are based on what I see and what I feel. These are (as some people commented) unsubstantiated arguments so please do not agree to my posts at face value.

freeDAMN

2005-08-10T04:45:00.000+06:00

FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS WHEN I HAVE THE FREEDOM TO SAY- THERE IS NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH…………….

Something interesting happened. I pasted a paragraph from my previous post on DO forum and guess what.. they have blocked me from posting on their forum. These are the people who are suppose to be our saviors from the present regime. It proves what I have been telling in all my previous posts that MDP is not acting in true faith. I guess I should refrain from making parallels between DOs forum moderators and MDP but still maybe this is a small reflection of what’s yet to come. I have read so many posts where people have been blocked or completely banned from DO's forum. The interesting thing about this is that DO is the kind of webpage that really has no boundaries or real ethics. If this is the style of this Internet paper than I see no reason why it suddenly creates boundaries and censorship when someone is critical of them. If Sappe the owner of Do ever read this I would appreciate if you could clarify how one could have no ethics or boundaries when writing articles yet have a problem when someone else criticize your website?.. If this is how the mouthpiece of MDP runs it sends shivers down my spine to think what they will do when they get the power. I seriously think that people like DO and its moderators should not try and fight for what they them self can’t uphold....

messege in a bottle

2005-07-31T01:22:00.000+06:00

Here is a reply i wrote to someone on the forum of http://themaldivian.org . I wonder if they will even post it.

MSG to NO MDP.
You know.. there is a large majority of people who do hate maumoon. Ask around. People live under fear and praise him out of fear of persecution. This might not be the direct policy of the current government but for some reason the structure is laid out in this manner. And yes I will agree that as far as I can see 50% or more hates the current president. These are not misrepresentation but merely an opinion (and as you say its punishable).. that’s exactly what the current government does, they twist opinions to misrepresentation, they twist expressions to incitement.. i love my country but this is not what I dreamt it would be in 2005. We are sick and tired of the current government. High-raised buildings are not the reflection of a modern society. Modern societies rely on access to education, health. and freedom. I do agree a large number of students are sent abroad to study and there are a large number of degree holders. percentage vise this is nothing and the people we have are concentrated in male'. Decentralization used to be the top issue in the mid 80s but what does the government do? destroyed a whole ecosystem and created Hulumale. Now Hulumale is one of the dreams of the current president. A permanent symbol that he will leave behind for the people of this country. But this does not really solve our basic problem of housing and decentralization. Did anyone even ask the current government what happened to its policy of decentralization? Under its previous policy, Laamu was being built as one of the central islands but look at its condition now, same thing with Addu Villingili, former tourism minister from addu try to speed up the process of opening Villingili as a resort and he quickly gets sidelined. Tell me what the current government did to decentralize. NONE. The schools in the atolls are in dire condition. i cant believe that there are people who still thinks and argue that the schools are in great shape. Well why don’t you go and ask the people of these islands... and they will tell you what their life is like.. its just sad really sad.. Again on the issue of decentralization, remember the time when roads of male' were being paved, and the president opened a fund for everyone to help. I remember boats arriving in the harbors of Male; bringing sand, stones ..etc for the construction.even the amount of materials brought by islands to male' got read on TVM 8:00 news. it became a compeition to see which island can please maumoon the most. I was a kid at the time and I use to think, look at these people, they are destroying their own island and its ecosystem to come and pave the way for the people of this one Island, so that the kids in Male' can go to school without wetting their shoes, the elites can drive their cars on smooth streets. How could a government do this to its own people. How could the current president let such a thing happen. Yet you want to say that 50% of Maldivian don’t hate maumoon.. It is around this time I use to see this slide that television Maldives always puts up after the 6:00 prayer, which reads "Dhivehi raajey ge malamathi, Male' reecha..." I cant remember the exact words but loosely it was saying the beauty of Male' is a reflection of our Maldives progress or something of that nature..
Now i am not a Male' hater. I grew up in Male to a middle income family and yes we people of male' did and still do enjoy a huge percentage of our resources. I was one of the lucky ones to be able to get a higher education But i have also lived and experienced the life in the islands. There is a sense of peace and serenity there a place of idyllic beauty.. These simple people are not asking to transform their islands to Tokyo but simply an access to medication and education.. maumoon could not provide these. Again this is my opinion..just simply ask the people what they do when they get sick, ask them what they do when they want to get a higher education, or what they do when they want to get a job...
Yet you tell us that 50% of the people don’t hate Maumoon. Maybe you might want to talk about what is there to really love him... I find his actions disgusting. I find he and his wife’s family appalling when they continue to misuse public funds. I am sure you will ask me to prove this.. I have no proof but that’s exactly how dictators work. Nothing is in the public domain, nothing gets checked, the people do not have access to the records, journalists are prosecuted or loose their jobs when they try to investigate. You might not believe me on these things but ask every Maldivian and they will have a lot of stories about a lot of very unfortunate people and i certainly don’t wont to become one.
yes i do feel ashamed of being a coward ...for not being able to stand up for this current president and his cronies. i do ask forgiveness from the people of the islands for letting this happen while i hide behind this screen. I ask for forgivness from the next generation for not standing up when I very well know that the current president is destroying our tomorow.

dancing party

2005-06-04T04:01:00.000+06:00

anyways pretty exciting week.. for the first time maldives parliament as voted to allow political party.. will write about it once the parties start to register. personally mdp was fighting to remove maumoon from presidency rather than to create any real political party this i think was personal vengeance against his administration... sometimes this whole party system might turn out to be an advantage to the current administration all they have to do is make sure the smaller parties are aligned with them.. so they will rule with a majority.... in every democracy a government with a majority in the house turns out to be arrogant, bold and corrupt... time will tell....

wizard of oz

2005-05-26T02:57:00.000+06:00

things seem to be a bit calm these days or should i say the usual mdp screaming at the gov and gov screaming at mdp. there was the trip by president to geneva and the founding member hardigam of the organization, friends of maldives and sara mahir was protesting during his visit. this was such a negative publicity for the president but at the same time this has fueled so much anger towards hardigam from the locals. it was seen as a direct attack on the maldivian people rather then the president. this whole scene completely backfired on hardigam i must say. as for sarah, i would have done the same thing given the chance (and if i could garner up enough courage to do what she did). but as for hardigam i myself felt so much anger towards this guy in spite of my dislike towards the policies of the current administration. i mean what else can i say.. a white male from britain suddenly coming to save us from the dark side. i want to ask hardigam where was he in the past 40 years.. i will tell you something if you really wanted to help us go to islands with no teachers, and teach,, that’s the greatest gift one can give to maldivians. education is what brings emancipation to people.. sorry dude you blew it this time, and however much i want the current administration to change i don’t think you are the one... as the oracle said in matrix (although neo proved her wrong)...sometimes i wonder what would happen if a maldivian had gone and shouted at tony blare about the war in iraq or did the same thing to bush... and i certainly do support banning hardigam from maldives. frankly now is not the time for him to come and interfere with politics, i certainly do believe in individuals freedom of movement but hardigam dude.. we are going through a crazy time in our country so please give us some space for the moment while we sort out our mess.. i understand and certainly agree with the current administrations disregard to written constitution and human rights.. but please let us sort out our political mess.. i think every maldivian will be grateful for the helping hand given by the people of britain in the event of tsunami and we do thank the people gratefully...
anyways... enough about hardigam.. oh and ph is still in jail under investigation...when you all make a parallel between ph and the number of articles on do.. can anyone tell me why the hell would do need ph in the first place.. anyone can write an article and email to do with or without ph. do has been banned in maldives with or without ph. things can get uploaded on to the forum with or without ph.... so i really don’t understand why the hell sappe will need ph to run the site.. i can understand if ph refused to block the site.. so it makes no sense for someone as ph to run the site and at the same time block it.. so guys when u make a parallel with ph and the number of articles on do ...it makes no sense.... or are u telling me that ph is the one writing all those articles on do.. hehhha that’s a laugh wonder how he find time to do any work in his office to get chairman’s award if he spends all his time writing articles for do.. hahahha this whole thing about ph and do is so stupid and immature coming from a government... personally i don’t see anything wrong with do. if it makes cartoon or if an article incites violence or defame someone then prosecute that someone who wrote it or crated it. if this is the law then i suggest we investigate dhiraagu and cable & wireless for giving access to internet. no maybe we should file against the inventors of internet for inventing the vehicle to incite violence... what a bunch of idiots..
anyways will write laters..

phree ph now

2005-05-05T15:19:00.000+06:00

what is the path of reform when innocent people get arrested and thrown in jail.. what is the path of reform when the very people appointed to uphold the written constituion completely disregards it... how can the governement talk of reform while they continue to arrest people and hold them without charge. ph has been my friend for the longest time, do you expect us to sit smiling thinking that this is the bargine one pays for the process of reform. if this is the case then take back the reform, take back this country, its money, its resources but leave the people alone. i have never taken sides and i had respect for the current government. i had given the police the benifit of the doubts and my previous posts will hold witness to it. i feel like so let down and deceived by a government that has embarked on a course of reform. i have been looking at a future that will be free from corruption a future where the police will be part of the community. where jails will become an institution for reform and rehebilitaion.. i had hoped that the future will bring justice to the ordinary person.. and freedom for the masses.. gosh.. this is making me so mad.. i just heard ph brothers comment and i can feel what they must be going through.. i can feel what his wife must be going through.. this is just crazy and i feel so helpless... even if ph is guilty then charge him.. treat his family as human.. follow the constitution. i am seeing so many websites now starting to justify the arrest of ph. the problem is not arresting people but how one arrest people and how they treat them. we are civilized enough to understand that in a nation, for its security people will have to be arrested and investigated. but if you have nothing to hold against them then let them be...although i have started to loath the whole reform process i have no desire to support the mdp even if they come in to power. they are as corrupt as the present government and their articles hold wintess to it. they are as shrewed, they do not respect peoples diginity and personal life. this is a party run by corrupt people who once were in the present goverment. who once pocketed millions of our money. how f***** dare you even show your face in public and suddenly take people's side, now that the money has stopped pouring in to your hands. the educated young people of this country will never support mdp nor the present goverment. my head hurts from all the crap that mdp and the government writes on their websites.. minivannews pretending to be an independed news sites. they are the same as any other news organization in maldives. the way they write is just a bit more sophisticated but bloody same crap. i just want all these power hungry bastar** to stop playing the game and give this country back to its people. please if there is any maldivian who knows anything about independed journalism please start a site and give us something unbiased. something that celeberates the people. anyways.. the morality of the people of this country is at an all time low. this has nothing to do with drugs belive me. its the policies of the current government. this generation of maldivians are the lost generation. we use to be a society that respected each other. a society that was based on morals and kindness towards our neighbours. no! this has nothing to do with religion. it was just the way maldives social structures was based on. its has been disintegrating for years.. min of arts and culture and min of education these two ministries messed a generation up. identity is something that needs to be reinforced all the time for each generation. nationalisic ideals, culture and who we are has to be fed to each generation. belive you me this is not the generation nor the time in history where you can continue to play those nationlisic songs over and over on tv thinking that our natioanlistic ideals will be reinforced. bloody hell.. we are so tired. this is the mtv generation.. a generation more complicated and visually listerate... grrrrrrrrrrrrr thats it.. i am going to sleep i am so starting to get tired of this yakking here on blog .. this whole world is messed up big time...

ph

2005-05-04T04:53:00.001+06:00

ph
Originally uploaded by maldivesblog.

i cant imagine that this is happening...phree ph now

second coming

2005-04-20T22:56:00.000+06:00

things are pretty calm around here except ocassionaly there is the talk of anni coming back to maldives. i guess the government is in a delemma about this because they cant imprison him becuase of international organizations and communities jumping on or they cant really leave him alone which will signal that he has not done anything wrong.. the way i see it is that the government will take tha latter and prosecute anni or atleast send the case to court. ofcourse mdp and some of the organizations will have a field day. well anni as an opposition have been invovled in a lot of activites and activites that are illegal which broke the law. their is no doubt about this. but one has to understand that under the maldivian law one has to break the law to say what one wants to say.. having said that i am not saying that anni's affilication with violence or being a catalyst for violence is the right thing.. but people should understand that at present the law of maldives need to be changed and revoked.. unfortunately anni is in a bad situation beucase he did break the law. sometimes i think the people who play with governments like this should be cleaver and not give a chance to the government to apprehend you.. those are good politicians.. those people who dont leave a trail behind. most of the mdp thought that they were beyond the hands of maldives governement and that international community willl protect them. most international countries will care less as long as they get nothing in return or as long as their countries big coporate giants are operating in the country....simple capitalism. so for anni and mdp, the trails you guys left behind will haunt you in maldives and in internationl courts and countires. these will remain as evidence against you guys because in the eyes of the court hardly anyone will look at the situation or the reason for doing it judgement will be passed on the action comited.
this is the thing i say to do website too. it clearly incites violence when it asks people to attend rallies. in no country can one hold a rally without the governments permission including the routes that the rally will take place has to be submitted to the city council. Having said that i dont see the current government granting permission to hold any rally that speaks against it which clearly infringes on our right of expression. i think there is no pressure valve that let us release these frustrations within us and people will obviously resort to these kind of tactics. i think it is hightime that the government started to create arenas for people to articulate their frustrations and one place they could start is through art and i dont mean drawing and paintings alone but art in its broadest sense. we knew what happened when we had the reform talks. it went out of hand the reformist (like everything thats done in maldives) went too far ahead of time and started to call for the government to resign. the very body that gave permission to hold these meetings in the first place. one should work slowly and intelligently to gain what one wants to gain rather than to start running before one could walk. in my opinion those reform talk arena was a really good place but this time i will blam the reformist for jumping too far ahead. forgetting who we are, where wer come from and where we are heading. i think the government should also start to open new arenas even limited for people to express their dissetisfections and should get real and come to terms with the sentiments of the people. governement has given permission to release adduvas an "opposition" magzaine. which is in a way a good move but i still dont see how the average persons can dissipates his or her frustration. these magazines and websites are not indipended arenas they are aligned to either side and always has a personal agenda. none of them celebrates the young and old achivers of this country. people who contribute to the running of this society. Are we to be just blind and thing that this country just run by itself and the money pours in from tourism. at the very basic level there are individuals, people who run this country. it is people who make policies that keeps this place afloat. how many times have we seen governement or the opposition celebrating these people. none. its about dog eat dog political arena.
i read on haveeru news and do site that some one has send a bill to parliment about the way resort biddings went and they have also sent the cause to court. as i was saying having the right to contest is fantastic and i like the fact that they were able to do this. everyone has a right to contest. having said that i still belive that tourism ministry did the right thing in bringing outsiders to eveluate the bids because there is no way the maldivians could do it. not because they are less capable becuase every maldivian in the field is connected to some resort owner or a company. which has been going since they started to lease these tourist resorts. this time atlease we have seen new faces that will become enterprenurs in the field. one funnything i noticed is the very people who sent the bill to court and to parliment are people who already have resorts, people who are rich and powerful. i say take a break and let others have a piece of the cake. i read their submission paper to parliment and it said "to elect a comitee from the parliment to look in to the bid eveluation process". here is the first step to corruption. first the people in the parliment know nothing about the technicalities of resorts and evnvironment etc. second i am tired of giving these mps so much power. they are bloody peoples servents as i have been saying so many times they are not like all in one-can-do-anything people. a commitee from parliment makes me laugh these are people who already got sold to either government or the mdp (atleast most of them) and for these rich resort owners who did not get more resorts will be so easy to buy these guys. anyways taking the matter to court and parliment is fantastic but i have a huge problem in the way this might go because the rich owners who did not get the resort are at the very bottom of this. get a life guys.
anyways.. i cant seem to get on dos forum. why do i get this feeling that it has been hacked by someone. i saw a few comments on themaldivian website about this. i dont think do is trying to spy on people or delete posts. i think it was hacked because it started with funny posts supposedly by the admin and then suddely it crashed. whoever did this... what a lowlevel way to bring on a fight.
anyways lets wait an see if annis second coming will bring any salvation to the maldivian people.

stone to sit

2005-04-01T13:29:00.000+06:00

after much debates and bickering the new speaker for the majilis have been elected or selected rather. i must say i was disappointed that the speaker turned out to be a member of the cabinet [wrong info here.. he does not hold a cabinet portfolio]. anyways in the end the vote was cast by show of hand. i was thinking.. if there were people who voted in favour because of fear, i suggest these mps to give-up their seat right away.. for me an mp representing me should have courage and bravery to fight for my right... they should be able to give up what they own for the betterment of the public. they should be servants of the public.. i am happy that we are moving forward. it is no surprise that some mps walked out...well what can i say, in a way they are my hero but than again what do we achieve by walking out. yes we see this happening in many parliaments but we are different, our society is different so our solutions should be different... i have yet to find the solution but i really do respect the mps who walked out for standing up for their beliefs. the whole game got complicated when one addu mp withdrew his name at the last moment. clearly this was part of the game plan by the government... i don't care what he says but he played the game very well.. one thing i don't understand about this mdp is the way they start to cry when anything goes against them... don't you realise that both you and the government are playing a stupid game.. thinking that we the common person on the street don't understand.. well for both of you guys info we do understand the dirty politics of you guys.. anyways its like this game and every time the government scores a goal mdp goes flipping crazy shouting, screaming....tsk tsp tsp..... grow up guys. the eu commission is in male accessing the reform process... do i even need to go there.. why in the world will eu be interested in maldives.. hmmm lets see, there are several countries around the world that are in far worse political conditions, there is much more in return they would get in terms of financially and there is a lot they would gain politically in terms of strategic location... what is their interest in maldives? is it purely on issues of humanity? i often wonder... often many would say that these are conspiracies created by christian missionaries. well i am sure that chritian missionaries are part of the reformers.. why wouldn't they be. here is the chance for them to spread their teachings so for sure a fool will not jump on the wagon. mdp and missionaries as far as i know have a symbiotic relation this does not mean that mdp want to spread christianity or that the members are chritians. mdp has avoided coming right out and say that they will bring freedom of religion to this country. ofcourse their scripted answer will be “in a democracy the majority rules, so even if mdp does want freedom of religion they cant bring it if the majority is against it” well... this is true but democracy is a cunning thing. one can bring freedom of religion in the name of basic human rights.. look at the gay marriage and abortion. majority of the western population is against both these issues yet the governments are ruling or trying to rule in favour of these minority rights.... the very essence of democracy is that they will not answer to the minority even if they are right... i often wonder if this is a truly progressive system for our species... anyways i guess this is the best we have for now...
reform is in many ways a beautiful dangerous thing....it should never be forced on to a population like the way that mdp is trying to do nor should it be withheld like the government has done for many years... i often think of reform as a tree growing, flowers blooming, old leafs falling off and new ones emerging... we should let the natural course of evolution and progress to take place.....
speaking of progress the resort bid evaluation has ended. there has been very few complains this time (yet) but what i am more concerned is what will happen next.. where and how will our money from resorts be spent.... i guess one should commend on the selection process this time.. at least it was by far, compared to any other year, the most transparent process i have seen. i don't think me nor mdp can judge how fair the process was this i guess will only be understood by the bidder and the tourism ministry. my concern is the transparency.. as long as i see that i am happy. lets wait and see... i was going through some old sites and came across a an old article on maldivesculture (i do not promote this site) http://www.maldivesculture.com/news/money_problems_maldives.htm after reading this article in light of so much changes that has taken place and after taking a look at the list of people who got the eleven resort i am thinking that the days of current tourism minister is numbered. a lot of powerful people did not get what they wanted..
at the moment i guess everyone is in a state of waiting which ofcourse is driving mdp crazy to avoid loosing the momentum they have gained. mdp should not let the reform process get stalled but at the same time they should stop calling these mass protests so blatantly that we are getting more and more confused about what we are protesting about. oh yeah i remember we are protesting to ask the president to step down... hmmmmmmm ok.. and??? i am not saying that there is no one to lead us.. i truely belive there are many capable people who can form a government but before we throw out something should we not plan out what should replace it.. what will fill this vacuum.. so before we go and bring down something lets talk about what we replace it with. what if what we replace turn out to be worse than what we have.. there is the maldivian saying that sort of translate to “don't take flight without finding a spot to land”...
i am sooooooooo bored....the only thing on tv some indian soap or a series.. well lets not even go there. we all know the state of our media. so many times i have read people wanting to privatize the tv station or at least divest it to allow private parties to operate their own station.. well me.. i don't think this is a good idea. this is a small country with so few people having two tv station will not be feasible nor economically viable. i think what tvm should do is.. stop producing programs and turn itself in to a broadcaster. out source the productions to private parties. let them propose and pitch ideas for programs... let people submit pilot programs and yeah fire all the producers (except the news producers) and let them be absorbed in to private studios. wont this save so much money? which can be used to buy the programs from the private studios? i don't know... anyways what do i know about economics and feasibility of such an institute.
hmmmm i guess i better go... “i just found a stone to sit”

ps: i am late excuse my grammer and spelling errors..

another day in para(dies)

2005-03-21T00:12:00.000+06:00

frankly i feel like screeeeming tonight bout these so called mps debating on the issue of how to elect a speaker to the parliament. let me give you a suggestion. how about we bring an expatriate speaker for the majilis. hopefully someone who does not know dhivehi. i think this will be a way to move forward so that we can start talking about human rights, freedom of speech, gender equalities, justice, religion, education, social security, pension, health, policing, transport... i can go on..
i think the government is playing the game here too they want the majilis to look incapable (than again it certainly seems to be heading in that direction). out of all this... one thing i am really happy about is the simple fact that people can disagree.. this certainly is a mile stone..something that is unheard of. Who knows maybe this is a sign of independence attained by the society due to the policies of the government. this might be crap for some and this might be something many people who genuinely believe in.. i don’t know...
sometimes i think that the generation that emerges through oppression are stronger and much more critical thinkers than a person growing up in a "free" society. again i might be wrong here.. these are just thoughts... one thing i am certain is that the present government did not treat everyone equaly. yes they made this country what it is now yet there is no doubt that we could have been more than what we are today.. its like telling me.. "look around you... you have "free" education, hospitals, paved roads... far better than most of other countries........so what if a few million get lost".. for a long time we believed in this we belived in "so what if a few million get lost”. it was not just an oppressed society it was also a satisfied society. the masses only started to question once we started to be unsatisfied… no jobs, no housing etc. the present pseudo uprising is not about how long the present governments been in power, or its oppression, or nepotism. its simply the fact that the state is unable to satisfy the masses as it use to do in the 80s and early 90s. hence the revolt. do you seriously think that there is human rights in north american and europen countries? or that their ideological society is the perfect functioning civilization. WRONG each and every country in this world runs like Maldives in varying degrees. Only difference is they know how to keep the masses satisfied and passive. Their way of manipulating the masses kept on changing and adopting to the new millennium where as our country was still stuck with the century old foucauldian tactics of controlling. I know I am sounding like a craxy guy here. I know there exist an ideal utopia model for a society but this will never succeed in a century where capitalism, security and xenophobia is what drives our decisions. We as a country exist within a wider world… while the world grew we refused to look outwards yet at the same time we bought everything that was sold to us.. we competed with the rest of the world in fashion and material goods. Sooo sad,,, sometimes I am so glad that Maldives does not have a mac, kfc or a taco. either due to economic reasons or policies of the government this is something we as a country should be proud of and I hope the people of this country never allow this to happen.
**sigh** Anyways.. the resort bids are being evaluated. I don’t care what mdp write on the site but I think this is one of the most transparent process ever devised in this country. It was very good idea for the process to be given to an outside company. People are allowed to be present during evaluation and also most importantly being allowed to appeal. I saw mdps article and I was wondering how can one argue when the money paid to this contracted company to be too low. If it was too high I can clearly see mdp going crazy over this.. let me tell you what good journalism is for me (note the "for me").. make a comparative analysis of the company.. give me company background.. tell me what another company charge for this kind of work.. the other thing about they being paid in pounds.. what’s the point this article is trying to make.. what if they are paid in gold? Hello!!! can we concentrate on the important matters here.. fairness and transparency.
Anyways.. lets wait and see how this process go. The only thing I have a problem is that people are not able to take the matter to court. They should be able to take legal action against tourism ministry if they think they are unfairly treated…. I will see how this process goes and will write more…
i got a lot to write.. there are all these talks about the fashion show and woman etc etc.. but I am just too sleepy to write now..here ends another day in paradise

watch me watching you

2005-03-03T23:20:00.000+06:00

And its over.. the new members been sworn in.. new jackets and suits bought.. they all look like a scene from a political thriller neatly lined up.. sitting on these huge chairs.. in an air conditioned room.. debating about my future, my neighbors future, my families feature. Sometimes i wonder what right a bunch of people elected by a majority of a society has over my person self considering the fact that none of the people i want is up there or let alone contested for the seat.. well i guess that’s what people call democracy. a system that does not hear the voices of minority... in fact when democracy is mixed with capitalism you get what i would call a 'capitacracy" (change the last "c' to a "z").. welcome to the new capitacraxy... in maldives a 30% democracy, 20 % islamcracy, 5% socialism, 45% capitalism.. beautiful huh? and the way things are going the whole society will fall in to a 90% capitalist society.. for example.
open tourism to the whole nation.. business and price of a commodity depends simply on the accessibility to an object. if something becomes as abundant as sand there is no market for it. i see no reason why tourism should be opened to the whole country. I think each zone should be surveyed to find what is potentially viable for that particular zone. farming, fishing, harbor, etc.. of course this would sound like segregation to some but these are just my thoughts.. i speak neither from experience nor from knowledge. if i be wrong than be it..
what about schools.. i read a number of times in articles that government should allow for private schools to operate without their interference.. another capitalist notion that quality of education depends on the tuition fee. imagine... in my island to have seperate schools for these rich kids ..while my kid go to public schools.. at least now my kid and my landlords kids are given an equal sitting..i want progress and quality of education to be determined by a kids ability and sweat for his own feature not his by his dads money.
these are good good policies managed badly. money from tourism poured in to pockets of rich people alone.. the division between rich and poor widening day by day. imagine when we reach the full maturity of capitalism... just imagine dhiraagu with a 100% private stake hold. I could not believe that the government would privatize companies servicing our basic needs.. water,, power..telcom.. etc.. this is not flipping states.
anyways... i am not advocating socialism but i think these companies should remain in the hands of the government which is eventually the public (makes me to laugh at my own comment on that one) and should not operate like business companies..
.....don’t know why i am writing so much tonight.. but what else is there to do.. the members are still bickering about if they need to rise their hand or rise their feet to vote. rise you hands i say. you are elected by me.. us... so show me who you vote... i want people who are hero’s who have the guts to stand up and say what they want to say... not some weenies who walk out of parliament just because they see it on tv and think its cool. now i don’t mean to undermine the walk out.... that was a defining moment in the transition.. but i stand by what i said in earlier posts about people sitting down and talking..standing.. and flipping rising their hands for my rights.. if you are too scared of the repercussions then why the hell did you even contest..
i will tell it straight.. i don’t know what the constitution says.. nor am i a lawyer.. but i damn want to know who my member voted for.. they can rise their hand or just an eyebrow but the slaves of the public in the parliament should let their masters know who they voted.. we the public are the masters of the slaves in the parliament. i don’t really care if they are paid five time the amount i get each month or they wear five times the size of the shoe i have...i feel soooo angry at them.. oh yeah oh yeah ....everyone would go that’s democracy.. being able to debate.. true well why don’t we go debate about the color of socks that mp's should wear...where are those reformers..
oh wait a minute.. i remember.. previous post i was saying that endorsing members was stupid .. that one would know where a candidate stands only when they start voting....hate to say.. i told you so.. i cant believe the wind has turned on shareef and aslam for going against ibra. wait a minute..... what happened to free speech.. "oh well its free as long as you agree with me i guess".. maybe the government bought those candidates.. maybe they where speaking their own mind.. or maybe they where just delivering what the majority of addu people want...oh well.. its just for five years..
the second coming of anni to male big talk.. i will try to get some pics of this in hulule..if the government wants to play it right i think they should do nothing.. i don’t care what evidence they have against anni. he is the bait on a hook of the fishermen. i have a great respect for anni but not for mdp (or the government) i am just watching the game. my guess is anni will come and government would do nothing.. obviously anni will try to do everything he can to get himself arrested...now that i am writing this.. i am thinking...maybe this is a small part of a bigger thing....oh well..
too tired to go and check the spelling and grammer..
i am just watching the game,,,

Forces Of Nurture

2005-02-07T02:36:00.000+06:00

things are returning to normal… hmmm that sounded funny, because i have forgotten what normal meant here in maldives. i remembered a time when i cared less about anything simply because i was happy to be alive..happy to be living in maldives. not a worry. we stayed in this idyllic state while everything around us zoomed passed in to modernism. we suddenly scrambled to catch up but how could we. medicine, education, basic needs has set dormant or may i say just functioning for too long. government and private sector stood watching the passing world as if it was the july 26th parade. anyways,, no use dwelling on what happened or what should have happened. we are here now (where ever we are)…
the new members are ready to be sworn in.. presidents appointed members are to be appointed soon. its interesting to see the pro government website “the maldives” concerned with the selection of presidents appointed members. let me map out how the politics seems to be running at the moment in maldives. this is just my thought…
there are four main parties, gayoom, illiyaas, yameen, mdp. at the end of the current government these are the four groups that will fight for power in different guises of course. my guess is that “the maldives” is a website powered by yameen, dhivehi observer as we know powered by mdp, and the rest of state media by gayoom. i don’t see illiyaas doing this because he is after the islanders (where majority don’t have telephones let alone internet)… now as you know the presidential candidate for maldives will be first passed by the parliament. and each of this group wants to have more members aligned to them. which is the reason why the eight members appointed by the president are so important to yameens and illiyaas party. this will have very little effect on mdp although there are reformists who have aligned with neither of these parties which might work in favor of mdp.
unlike any other website i have seen, “the maldives” write a lot of articles about the ministers who ran for the parliament and lost... i dont think the people who won reflects a whole nations support for them nor the people lost reflect a whole nations dissatisfaction with them…... i have come to conclude that ….those who lost are not yameens candidate which is so obvious from the articles on the website. hmmmmm my thoughts… it doesn’t matter who lost or won we should put educated, vocal people who understand the constitution. i think there must be great people who lost for what ever reason and very unproductive people who won for whatever reason. instead of selecting eight candidates randomly i think he should not elect anyone aligned with illiyaas, yameen, or mdp. i think these eight people should be highly educated people within our society who has not sold their souls to some business tycoon…..
***yawn***too sleepy to think.. will write some more laters….

(T)Reason

2005-02-06T14:25:00.000+06:00

the elections are over. people are still restless as ever. sometimes i wonder what these candidates would do for the ordinary people like us. it is a clear fact that most of the candidates’ were/are already aligned with powerful and rich individuals of this country.. i found it funny that iliyas was at the party of aslam who was portrayed as an mdp candidate during elections. wonder who are the people behind rest of the candidates.. would it not be funny to suddenly see mumoons government collapse and up comes iliyas, yameen or mdp all of which are controlled by our business community. rich powerful individuals. maldivians should wake up and look at these more closely. it is premature to think that fall of maumoon is the road to emancipation.. burumaa the richest man in maldives is running along side mdp yet he and iliyaas been playing the game together are we so naive to think that once mdp comes to power, with the money of these rich people, they will prosecute their friends- the corrupt thief’s? i highly doubt it. in every country the so called freedom fighters are given automatic immunity and their past corruptions erased. i for one would like to bring cabinet ministers who have abused public funds, rich business people, "royal' families to stand trial for what they did. i do not say every minister who is working for maumoon is corrupt nor every businessperson is maldives is corrupt. there are ministers who never touched public funds and rich business individuals who play it fair..
yesterday i was wondering what the difference is between treason and opposition...
there is a process to change a government and that is every 5 years we have what is known as the voting. if we want to bring down a government, talk about what we can do better.. and how we can do better. get the people to understand how we are going to achieve what we want to achieve so that people will vote a no to the present government. that’s the way to change it....there is nothing wrong with aspiring to be a president.. its every individuals right... but that right should not infringe somebody else’s rights.. So if we don’t like which ever group then go and educate the people on what we can do and how we can do it show them the plan... it is not me, mdp, illiyas or yameen to bring down the government with all these articles and useless talk.. simply tell us what you can do better, show me the plan and be willing to stand trail and prove your innocence- illiyas, yameen, maumoon and mdp

bbc

2005-01-31T01:19:00.000+06:00

i saw an interview between sappe (owner of opposition website do) and shaid (chief government spoke person).. well-done both of you. you two have just killed what little little dignity we had as a nation. Sappe you have had numerous opportunities to come on to bbc, given that maldives is such a small nation. yet in every occasion you come and talk about the same thing. government this and government that. sappe use the opportunities to let the viewer know your future plan. give credit where it deserve. as for shaid saying that maumoon is the father of democracy was a blunder when the whole international community is watching the government like hawks. shaid say what was done to make the election process fair instead of saying there are international observers. the fact that two opposition getting elected in male' is no testimony of a fair election.
the interviewer was clearly on the mdp side. for bbc to take sides on something like this was such a disgrace. she asked- it took 27 years for reform to take place and it was a one party system etc... british monarchy system lasted for a century and their transition took years.. united states is a creation of more than 200 years.
these are just my personal thought on the interview..

post election

2005-01-27T01:57:00.000+06:00

and so the much contested election is over and each side is claiming to have won more seats than the other. i think to claim this is stupid. lets wait and see how a bills get voted in the parliament. this will tell you which side the members are really on. i think the race to buy candidates are on now, between the government and mdp.
my personal view is that this election process has been the most fair election ever in this country. but sadly the worst and most degrading campaign processes. our country, our community, our coming generation and our future was bought and sold with money. it all became a commodity. this is not to say it was just government candidates. both mdp and government was set out to buy people and the sad thing is people actually sold this nation. people made their choice on two basic grounds 1) for the money 2) because of a hate for a certain candidates association. so if you are a government candidate doesn’t matter who you are "we will select any one else" or "we want anyone but mdp".
hardly anyone looked at a candidate's mandate, history and their ability as a leader. during the campaign instead of letting the public know what a candidate can do, most of the candidates set out to smear the other candidates, spraying posters, ripping them, writing articles and cartoons about each other. where has our society as true maldivians disappeared to. is it not sad to see how little we actually think or even care for our children’s feature..
i think with the elected candidates there is an equal number of people on the opposition and government which is a wonderful thing (although personally speaking...their performance and ability is questionable). we will have to wait and see how the government will make the next move. and this next move will be the most important of them all. i wish success for the candidates who were elected and hope they will make wiser decision within the parliament.

Post tsunami's

2005-01-12T17:00:00.000+06:00

things are getting back to "normal". it will take years for the reconstruction and i wonder how the rural islands will be able to pick up from where they left. let me tell you how the response was..the tsunamis hit the capital around 9:30, due to dhiraagu's (our telcom) lack of of providing real telecommunication system to the whole country, no one was able to report the comming wave or their condition even on the islands where the telecomm system was running. dhiraagu promised by 2000 that they will introduce telecommunication to the whole country and guess what they did. they just installed one telephone in the atoll house (where the admin work of atoll takes place) and if you are lucky one telephone booth in the islands. this is disgusting for a company like cable and wireless .. anyways it hit male' the capital around 9:00. the fist thing that happened was, all the cell phone to cell phone calls got jammed. the network went too busy (this usually happen even on normal days so just imagine). and people started running towards the beach to watch.the wave did not come with great force but it looks like the sea level rose and the water poured in over the sea wall (lucky we had that)..
communication with most of the islands were lost and people panicked not knowing if their friends and relatives were OK. The government turned the only tv channel, casting images of the tsunami and started live interviews and stuff. I wish they had created a seperate channel for this.
it took at least three days for communication to be established with the rural islands. i must say that it was a shame that the government did not use its plans, boats, launhes to travel to these islands to asses the damage immediately. a fund was opened and there was very very generous help given by the people of male' (the capital island) which i must say i was surprised at how much compassion that they showed.
as usual the opposition blamed evertyhing on the government including the tsunami itself.
the general election was postponed which is great because this country wont be ready to vote for a long time. but under the present constitution the last day to announce the vote can be 25 january unless the president declears a state of emergency. but this would get the oppositions go crazy...

Tsunamis

2004-12-30T22:16:00.000+06:00

i havent written for a long time.. been really busy with travelling to islands trying to get a clue about the upcommin election..will have to update on that later.. at the moment our country is facing one of the worst disasters ever.. i was in the capital male' when the wave came in.. fortunately nothing much happened to the capital... and the cleaning took only a few hours.. the brunt of the damage was felt by the rural islanders.. all the infrastructer has been completely wiped out in some of the islands..and i must say the government has been very slow in responding to this... will update on this later.. there is so much more that the gov could have done..this was like one chance they got to lift their image..
pvt parties are donating stuff to the victims..the damage is mega comparatively as the population is small and poor.. i cant stay on the net for too long right now.. but will be back to update on the situation..

time will tell.. time

2004-11-27T21:40:00.000+06:00

today i saw a website of ibra a runner for the much contested male' seat and an mdp members.. i wonder if a gov. candidate put up a website or their supporters put up a website.. do would have gone crazy.. this is what i meant on the other posts about the opp. not writing intelligent articles.. frankly ibra or his supporters have every right to do this i don’t think there is anything wrong with this.. and so does the gov. candidates... and i hope that the gov. or the election board don’t make a fuss about these sites because supporters have a right to do this....
both the gov sites and the opp internet sites have started their mission of defaming the candidates ultimately leaving the public with no true knowledge of these candidates who will be shaping our life.. i wish there was someone who would come and give us a true picture of the people running so that we can make informed choices....
i also read on do page that some of the opp. candidates have been summoned to the police and instructed them not to leave male'. if this is true this is a gross violation of their rite to have a fair contest with other people running and if this is a lie the gov. should publicly announce that these are just rumors. since i don’t know these candidates personally i am unable to verify this but will try to find out.. or else we will know after dec 1 if they go to these atolls which will be proof that do just made up the story and if they don’t which would mean that the gov. has grossly violated candidates freedom.
i saw tourism minister’s interview on a magazine and do went crazy on him. my understanding is that everyone has a freedom of expression and a minister have all the right to say what he sees just like opp. right to say what they want.. i think the opp. specially do has a problem in this sense where the only thing they do is defame individuals who are not with them....
i hope that the gov. plays this election right because this election will be proof of presidents promise for reform....

seat

2004-11-25T08:22:00.000+06:00

i still have faith that things are going to change and change for the better. The gov should make sure that the coming parliament members are selected fairly and there is no vote rigging. there has been many instances of vote regining and this is undeniable i have no proof that this was done by the gov or by the people in the islands but this has happened...Frankly i see no reason why the gov has centralized the vote counting procedure i see no reason why the capable people in the atoll cant do so in their own island. i think the gov should do this in this election. but what ever they do there will be people who talk against it that’s democracy and that’s natural. this does not mean people who character assassinate each other or people who defame others which is the lowest of them all in a democratic society. i also think that just because a candidate is from the gov, that does not mean that person is inappropriate for a seat.. i will chose my member based on the person not on what he holds.. i am tired of seeing members who do nothing.. gov or not...
i also read on opp websites complaining about gov candidates campaigning before their names were released officially which is illegal under the law. but i know for a fact that every one has started to campaign gov and opp.. i have seen opp people going around doing their bit of campaigning and i don’t see anything wrong with this.. my understanding is when the rule says no campaigning before the dec 1 means official campaigning that is.. tv ads, posters, public gathering.. etc.. as long as no candidate does this than there is no problem with this.. everyone is doing their part.. and this is a natural part of running for seats.. debating about these candiate is a good thing to do and we should do so.. but we should do it in an inteligent way so that people can make informed decsisions.. these people that we select will make an inpact on our lifes or they may be just a name disconnected from the public connected with the gov or the opp... just because someone is from opp i do not think he/she will serve the best interest of my community.. i will choose who can talk for me.. i will choose who can make changes...

wind of change..

2004-11-22T10:55:00.000+06:00

i just lost the trust i had for do.. the opposition website.. i neither took sides all along and so today i thought i will submit something to its forum to reply to someone else comment on distribution of wealth.. and this was how it appeared on the forum when it was published

***********************************************************************************
Hi to Open the Islands,
No, to open up the resorts is not a good thing, but I agree that the profits should be distributed to all. This situation, where the rich get richer and have more opportunities, is not something happening only in Maldives. This is a fundamental flow in capitalism. The problem not only in tourism, but it is very much tied to the economic system in Maldives and in many other countries.
We need to find how we can create a new system for Maldives or create a balancing plan within the kind of capitalism we already have. Just opening up the resorts will not solve anything, nor will opening up other sectors.

These are things we need to think about in a much broader sense than picking out bits and pieces from here and there. We need the money to flow where it is most needed.

Open the Plan
Maldives, Sunday November 21, 2004
********************************************************************
what is wrong with this is that they have changed my last sentence "We need the money to flow where it is most needed."
this is not what i wrote... i wrote.. " what we need to do is change the SYSTEM" the nick name i used was "eye" .. i felt disgusted and betrayed.. i feel sick.. how can you fight for me and yet do this to us.. i was never on either side.. but i had hope.... the change was just the wind....

it came true

2004-11-19T10:41:00.000+06:00

well.. so the opposition have started their campaign boycotting maldives amongst tourist.. this was my worst fear and i have been talking about this in my previous posts.. what a bad bad bad move.. this is no way to get support from the people.. see ..maldivians are generally well off and to cut off tourism is to cut off peoples livelihood and no one will be willing to support such an act. maldives is not some other country... because money from tourism does trickle down to masses... it might not be balanced or fair but some amount does go to people.. and the opposition should acknowledge this.. if this be the case then there is no one in maldives who will support such an act....
today also i heard about the candidates running for parliament seats.. and all opposition does is bash bash bash these candidates... sometime i wonder if that’s all these people can do.. i want an opposition who would come out and support their candidate.. and opposition who would write intelligently... i don’t want to bash people because these people ...even though they are from the government.. have every right to run for the seat as anyone else.. instead of screaming things about someone i want to hear good things about others so i can make informed choices.. . every time i get in to the oppositions websites i feel like i am forcefully fed their propaganda.. funny same thing with the government website.. these two monsters are stuffing me with so much propaganda i want to puke their own crap over them...
i feel sooo frustrated now.. i think both the gov and the opp should get a life........

friend in need is a friend indeed

2004-11-09T05:50:00.000+06:00

some of the reformers that were arrested has gone on a hunger strike,,, personaly i am not sure how a hunger strike would work but in a country where there is little access to international media this might not be the wisest move i might be wrong on this one. there is also a tourism fair thats going on in london one of the biggest in the world and it seems there are protesters on the street demanding the release of the detainees... this might put pressure on the government i just hop the protesters dont call for the boycot of tourism in maldives. this will be the worst move,, look what happened to iraq when the embargo was put in place. most of the basic needs of the country got cut off and i fear this will be the same scenario. anyways i dont see any western country placing an embargo in the maldives becuase there is very little they can gain from maldives regardless of who rules the coutry.. as of now most of the major companies like telcom , water, land reclamation are done by big western companies or the larger contracts are given to them so i see no reason why they would want to hinder this close connection..
the atomosphere in the country is gettin tense as we are moving ahead in to electing memerbs from each atoll.. this is a tricky thing as the president wants many of his friends and cabinet members to secure seats and the opposition wants their people.. watch out for some form of a violence in different part of the country...

and so it goes on...

2004-10-28T11:18:00.000+06:00

the opposition is loosing ground these days.. now i have been using the words opposition ..reformist.. government... for some people these are confusing because depending on who you are or more so who you align with these words will take different directions... but one things for sure everyones in for reform.. so here after i will only say opposition and government..
today the commonwealth secretary was in maldives.. i haven’t seen an interview of him or his thoughts.. but my guess is that it went pretty smooth but will know soon depending on who starts to quote him..on do (and internet maldives website) there is an article about anni (opposition) contemplating on taking legal action against gov for torture in a british court.. if this becomes a high profile case this is going to effect tourism very badly as one of the biggest market is in europe... and this will have grave consequences to the average maldivian because tourism is our bread.. reminds me of the sanctions on iraq..
its been pretty cloudy and gloomy and so is the peoples mood.. i am trying to figure out how to upload some pictures to this but haven’t had time to do it..what i have been doing to be so busy i dont know....

High! How are you?

2004-10-24T10:29:00.000+06:00

nothing much going on.. i guess everyone is too busy with the ramzaan and all.. i am not sure whats going on with the people under house arrest.. my guess is everyone is laying low for a while trying to see where this is going or maybe they are waiting for them to set a trial date or how the gov is going handle this situation...
for some reason there are a lot of crime happening in the capital city.. now crime is again a subjective thing.. this is no crime compared to other major cities.. but for maldivians pick pocketing is a crime.. and mugging someone is a major crime.. when i grew up there was never a mugging and i don’t think there is a word in maldivies dictionary for mugging.. funny... now i guess the gov has to come up with a new word...at least we are enriching our language.. mostly the crime is directly related to the drug epidemic.. it is such a rampant problem that its is out of control now.. i think the gov did very little initially tackle it until it was too late.. and its too late now... creating rehabilitation centers or increasing the number of councilors wont help, my guess would be that.. now is the time to start from the very young generation thought education.. for most part of nineties not even the gov but the people where in denial about the problem.. refusing to talk about it.. the problem of drugs in the islands are getting worse.. lack of a policing service make it worse. unlike the capital the islands have little agencies to look in to these social problems.. i have this feeling that in the next ten years the problem will explode and this will effect the economy in major ways... i think independent people should starting taking statistics and see which methods are working.. maldives is not us or europe its different.. what work in these countries will not work in maldives contradictory to some of the oppositions arguments.. thats the problem with the opposition they look at other counties models and try to bring it to this small island nation..
i bet there is one person in every family in the capital male' who is in to drugs.. this is a scary situation when you consider there are only 300 000 people in the whole country.. i think the problem of drugs is a much worse problem that the government face than the actual reform groups..

wishing well

2004-10-22T11:11:00.001+06:00

as predicted gasim and the rest of reform mps have been released.. well lets say transfered to house arrest until trial... and no one but the people of that house can come in to that house.. most probably the phones are blocked and if not it will be tapped....i think their trile will depend on the public mood at the time of them being taken to trile so it is hard for me to speculate on the outcome of the trile.. but i hope that the goverment use this highly publisied arrest to show an example to the rest of the community about the fairness of this.. or else this will be one more episode that will surely be stuck in the memories of the everyday maldivian...
apart from that nothing much has changed.... foreign delegatons from different organizations come and go.. frankly i will not trust no delegation.. in a capitalist world i dont see why any country would do a favour to another country or its people if they are not to gain from it.. it does not make sense.. why would a country spend its tax payers money to help another country..i dont belive that this is possible.. but i do belive in ngos and other non governmental organizations.. but very skeptical about governments.. there were some us deligations and commonweath delegations.. and suprisingly a sudden interest by china... this will be interesting to keep an eye on..
during a new conference the commonwealth delegate gave a positive feed back on the reform agenda proporsed by the government... and i wait to see it implemented..
you know many nights i wonder who actually own this small nation.. of about 300 000 people.. is it the rich business community, korli family, presidents family, all i know is its not a nation of its people for a number of reason and i hope this reform address this..some people asked me today what i wanted to see in this reform... what is that we dont have?? i think more than anything what we want is fairness and the rest will take its couse..

sleepless in maldives

2004-10-16T15:51:00.000+06:00

its late night and i could not sleep.. just had haaru (late dinner) with everyone which is great.
there are still reformist activist held and i have a feeling that they wont be released anytime soon.. one of them is gasim the richest man in maldives and the favorite of the opposition. he was arrested during an anti government rally.. people say he went to the rally to disperse the crowd but this turned out to be a blunder... i don’t know why these people don’t know how to play the game of politics... and this is a repetition of annis scene again in a lot of ways.. i still wait for a leader who is intelligent and ready to take on.. gasim should not have even gone out that day.. if you want to get involved in politics you have to learn to play the game of chess.. you should learn your enemy and friends first before you embark on the journey.. i am not justifying what the government did but i think they played the game of politics very well... eventually gasim will be released... but.. my prediction is he will not return to politics for a long time.. his whole business is at stake doesn’t matter how rich he is...what is more important power?? or money???.. sadly in gasims situation you need the money to have that power...i think gasim has been planning on this for a long time this can be seen from his scholarship scheme.. no other business person has funded so many young people to do their studies.... this was a blessing for many maldivians..
on a political level i think this was a preplanned strategy which actually worked.. but if i was gasim i would have waited for some years before jumping in to politics... my guess would be that the opposition must have approached him rather than he approaching the opposition and he prematurely got involved..in politics you don’t go to war when you only have a sword to defend you.. that’s plan stupid.. you don’t get in to politics if you don’t have an exit strategy...
so do i support gasim?? no i don’t as i said in the very first blog that i don’t support any one.. i will let the reader know when such a government, person or a party emerge.. as of now no one has convinced me that they can give a better future to my children.. and the generations to come...
personally i think gasim should explain clearly how he made the money in the first place? long before this... the government and gasim played the game together....and both should be tried in a court of law... in writing this i am not trying to influence nobody, nor trying to spread a certain discourse.. these are just my simple thoughts on a sleepless night

walk of life

2004-10-15T00:55:00.000+06:00

today in the parliament 12 mps walked out in protest when the parliament went ahead with the show of hand voting.. in a situation like this these 12 mps carried out a bold move.. but sometimes i often wonder is it better to walk away or to stay and see what you can ingest in to a situation? now, i don’t know the whole process in the wider context as i was not there at the parliament.. but i think our problem is trying to change this from the outisde.. this is no reference to the physical locations of the people but what i mean is most of the reformers tend to push from the outside trying to burst the social matrix constructed around us.... would it not be more easy to rupture it from the inside ?? change i think can occure within and for that change to happen we should change ourself... maybe this is my idealistic dreams... anyways for the parliament to go ahead with the show of hand voting is a blow to its credibility and much needed public relation.. i seriously don’t understand why the government did not go with the secret ballot.. as i am sure they would have won and could have gotten more ammunition.. not by 70 something votes for sure.. but still they would have won..

"And after all the violence and double talk
There's just a song in the trouble and the strife
You do the walk, you do the walk of life"
(WALK OF LIFE Dire straits)

"freez.. this is a hold up.... hands up"

2004-10-14T06:17:00.000+06:00

few days back the parliament debated about how to select a speaker... this has been going on and on .. for god sake why don’t we hire a speaker from some other country and move on already.. the whole reform process is stalled because of this.. the government wants to do it by show of hands and the reformists want to do it secretly. how can both parties stall what is good for the people of this country by such a trivial matter.. now i don’t mean to undermine the legitimacy of the process but i think in every process we should make compromises to achieve our goals.. for now the government has the power so for the sake of moving the process why don’t the reformists ride the wave...now you cry that i am for the government.. let me say this.. i do agree with the reformist that the process of showing hand is not fair and this will have its own political consequences... but should we not think of moving forward and confront wider issues. i can almost guarantee that even on a secret ballot the government candidate would win ...this is just a fact and we all know this so why don’t we move forward and sort out the real issues....

Where do i start.. but its a start...

2004-10-13T06:08:00.000+06:00

hmmmmm... i don’t know where to really start.. or why i am doing this.. or how i am going to do this.. all i know is i want to do this..
my little country is going though this very interesting time and boy.. i am glad i am part of it.. part of history in the making.. i clearly remember when we never had cell phones,,, or had no idea what internet was... i remember when we had open wells to wash ourselves.. i remember walking though knee high puddles of water to get to school.. i remember when i use to live in this island full of trees and coconut palms... i remember going to the beach ..fishing with my little sister... i remember spending nights and days in the sea...i remember when people use to stop on the street when they hear the prayer calls... i remember when we never could afford milk... i remember when we use to play with fireworks... i remember when we flew kites.. these are all nostalgic memories locked away and kept safe until from time to time i take it out and let it play in my mind giving me this sense of serenity and happiness...
so how did we reach this point.... are these inevitable consequences of globalization and modernism or is this an experiment that has badly gone wrong.... who knows.. maybe this is part of the experiment..
so you ask me, where i stand? i don’t want to be either .. yet there are social factors and realities that pull me to different sides... and as these realities change... i change.. i am not trying to say that this changes my basic philosophy of what is right and wrong or what is human and inhuman.. or what is moral and immoral or fair and unfair.. as humans we have the same ideals that we want to attain.. doesn’t matter what religion, nationality, sex or race you are.... or which side you are on..